Breaking and Mending
by Michaela Will
Summary: Update: Sasuke and Naruto are gone. Sakura is left behind to battle out of depression and unresolved feelings for her teammates that gets more confusing as she find herself drawn to someone new. LeeSaku.
1. Breaking

_Breaking and Mending_

_Breaking_

_By Michaela Wills_

"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan." Her head popped up to meet the fifth Hokage's' gaze. She blinked a few times to get her bearings. Tsunade smiled gently at her student. "I think you've studied enough today, Sakura-chan. You may go home."

She nodded dumbly as the vibrant woman hummed, putting away vials and sorting needles. Clearly, there was something satisfying the new Hokage, but Sakura was damned if she knew what it was. Maybe she just enjoyed wearing out her students. She wouldn't be the first teacher Sakura had who viscerally enjoyed the process of pushing students past their limits. Even as she thought it she knew that was untrue, and unfair to Tsunade.

Sakura dragged herself off the books she was reading. With Tsunade's help, she somehow managed to get them all put away before trudging home.

The streets of Kohona were deadly quiet as Sakura made her way to the Haruno house. Even with new security measures in place and patrols of the Kohana Police force, it was uncommon to see anyone out much after dark right now. The dark was broken only by the light of the moon, well into its nightly trek across the sky. She had stayed late again, later than she was supposed to. As she turned the final corner, she noted that there was a small light on at the Haruno house: the only light on the street. Even from half a block away Sakura knew it was the faint light was from the lamp on her bedside table.

Sakura tried to yawn as she entered her room, but movement and the cool night air had woken her completely. Her bed was turned down and pajamas laid out for her on the covers. On the chair next to the bed there was a clean set of clothes for the next day. Her mother was clearly trying to send a message, one Sakura read as "You aren't taking care of yourself." With a sigh Sakura changed and then sat at her mirror to comb her hair.

It was short now and Sakura had become accustomed. What she had not become accustomed to was all the other changes. She watched her face and brushed her hair to soothe her nerves, but it all started to surface all over again: The loss of Sasuke, the damage to Kohana, the constant absence of her father, her mother's sudden intensity with the overbearing mother hen act, the pressures of the medical-ninja trade, Kakashi's missions, the constant injuries, the fearful, tearful reunion and departures, Naruto's absence, the end of Team 7.

Sakura drew in a sniffle and set her quivering mouth in a firm line. Resolutely, she put down the hairbrush and went to the bookshelf. She firmly took a borrowed anatomy book off the shelf and opened it at her desk. She began to read again, making notes, her pencil making firm, deep scratches against the paper. It was a good thing that the text would probably remain in her hands, the marks were so deep they nearly tore the paper.

Her mother found her in her nightclothes on top of the book the next morning, bed untouched, for the third time that week.

* * *

_Okay, this is my first time trying a multi-part when I'm not finished writing. This is also my first shot at writing for Naruto, so it's a experiment of sorts. I imagine this can go on endlessly, or end anytime, based on feedback and what time I have to write. I have something for parts 3-5, so let me know if you want to see it. _

_-Michaela_


	2. Steadfast Perserverance

_Breaking and Mending_

_Steadfast Perserverance_

_By Michaela Will _

Sakura was present when the ninja presented himself to Tsunade. They were in the infirmary; Sakura healing little cuts and bruises off the patients with chakra and Tsunade quizzing her on techniques and endurance.

"Hokage-sama!" The ninja knelt in the doorway with his head down as Tsunade and Sakura turned to look at him. "I have some important information from the reconnaissance team in the Country of Rock. They believe that this is of the utmost urgency."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. Sakura quickly finished healing the cut she was working on. With a quick look at her student, Tsunade waved her hand.

"Alright, alright. I'll hear it now, but I suppose we'd better go back to my office. I assume this is classified?" The ninja gave one distinct nod. "Sakura-chan," she said over her shoulder, "Please keep going and let me know how many you were able to do at that level before getting too tired."

"Hai!" She responded. As the ninja and Hokage were about to leave the ninja suddenly stopped and started patting his pockets. Two pats later and he was opening the pocket flap and reaching into its depths.

"One more thing," he asserted, "The message was given to me by Jiraiya-sama, who had gathered some of the information for the team. He gave me something for the Hokage-sama's medical student." He looked at Sakura as he pulled his hand from his pocket, "You are she, correct?"

Sakura nodded. The ninja stepped forward and put a small paper package in Sakura's palm. The ninja bowed and walked past the Hokage, who was now leaning on the frame of the doorway. Tsunade's eyes softened, looking at the tiny package. Sakura looked down at the little package, unable to move or speak, her mouth hanging open looking something like a pink-haired fish.

"On second thought Sakura-chan, you haven't been sleeping much and you've worked and practiced medical jitsu for the last 13 days. Take the afternoon off and sleep in tomorrow. I don't want to see you until noon." Sakura nodded dumbly as she put the package in her pocket. Tsunade's graze scraped over her student's frame. Finally, with a satisfied nod at Sakura, Tsunade took her leave.

Somehow Sakura managed to get herself cleaned up, leave the infirmary and get outside. She wasn't really sure how. She retrieved the small package and let it sit in the palm of her hand. The flow of people moved around her and she stood, staring at the tiny scrap. She knew exactly where she had to open it. Closing her fingers around the little object, Sakura sprinted for the memorial.

With her back resting against the stone and panting for breath, Sakura started to undo the paper. The folds were hardly expert, creased over multiple times and dirty. Sakura could imagine Naruto trying to wrap his gift oh-so-carefully and messing up, grabbing his hair and making grunts of frustration, swearing and starting over and over. It brought a smile to her face to think of it. As she pulled back the paper she noted Naruto's fingerprints etched into the dirt on the paper. The little whorls of his fingerprints were comforting, like a piece of her teammate coming back to her. Some days it felt like team 7 had never existed to begin with, for all the boys had left behind.

There was no note. No handwriting of any sort. But there was clearly a message. There were dried out petals in the package: wisteria and hydrangea. As Ino's friend, Sakura of course knew flower meanings. But... Sakura's brows furrowed. Where the hell had Naruto learned flower meanings? And when? Had he been listening to Ino's ramblings between classes? He had been forced to sit in front of her for a while, perhaps the knowledge had seeped into his head with overexposure.

Or maybe he'd asked when he'd bought the flowers? Sakura imagined Naruto in a flower shop, pointing at various flowers while some sweet little girl, who looked very much like Hinata in Sakura's mind, answered with one meaning after another. She could imagine Naruto carefully considering what to send her and taking as much time and care with his message as he had with the wrapping. She shrugged, she wouldn't know the answer anytime soon. Maybe when Naruto eventually returned with Jiraiya she'd ask. Sakura looked back at the petals. Steadfast perseverance, huh? It certainly was very like Naruto to send her a message like that. Especially when he knew there was no way she could send a reply. Then she noticed in the petals something else shining. Sakura sifted through the petals carefully and pull out the shining objects one by one.

They were hairpins; little ones for girls with short hair. Two were adorned with the Konoha leaf, and the other two had pink sakura blossoms on them.

It was… totally girly. It was thoughtful and sweet and unlike Naruto to think so nicely of her when he was out there, probably having the time of his life. It was the sort of gesture she'd always wanted from Sasuke. She smiled as she started to cry silently. Of course Naruto would be so kind. Naruto didn't always think just of himself, and he was probably as lonely as she was without Team 7.

Without the people he called family.

Tucking the Konoha pins into her hair, tears escaped from her eyes. Sakura put the other pins in her pocket and hid her head in her knees for a good, proper cry. She sobbed for herself and sobbed for Naruto. Steadfast perseverance would start later. Her tears clogged her throat and nasal cavity, forcing her to lift her chin. She looked at the sky and pressed her head back against the monument, allowing her tears to drip down her face. She knew if she wiped them away she'd only begin crying anew. Her eyes stung from the saline mixing with the ditiness of her face after a long morning.

She needed to go home. It was time to be strong again so Sakura wiped the tears away on her wrists and sniffled a few times to temporarily clear her nostrils. She stood up and turned homeward.

"Sakura-san?" Her head whipped around in the opposite direction from her body, her limbs contorting in an awkward jumble. She knew that voice and it belonged to the last person she wanted to see like this. A green and black form stood between the bushes at the edge of the clearing, and Rock Lee's mouth was drawn in a serious knot. Her body stalled out in its convoluted position and her knees suddenly buckled. Sakura braced herself to meet the ground.

She felt more than saw Rock Lee move.

"Eh?!" Sakura jumped at the voice directly beside her as she steadied on her feet. Two hands gripped her shoulders, holding her until her ankles realligned properly beneath her. She looked up and found Rock Lee keeping her aloft while maintaing an arm's length distance. "Eh!"

"Sorry, Sakura-san." He stepped back and bowed to her quickly, "I did not mean to startle you. In repayment I will escort you to where ever you are headed!" Lee spoke without a hesitation or pause between sentences. Sakura's lips thinned, but it was clear that Lee was resolved. She worried her lip. How long had he stood there? Had he seen her crying?

They stood there for a moment, Lee's hands behind his back, stance open as he waited for her to indicate her destination. She murmured something that was meant to be thanks and started to trudge back to the Medical buildings, Lee matched her step for step. As they reached the edge of the clearing, Sakura again remembered Tsunade's command and with a sigh switched directions for home. She could feel Lee's decerning eyes watching her carefully, but he surprisingly didn't shift to energetic questions and bold promises. She let it be. If he didn't ask he must not have seen her crying.

Lee remained quiet beside her until they reached the main road leading back into Konoha proper. He suddenly began to speak with his usual vigor when they reached the path.

"Gai-sensei and I just returned from a training mission, so I can get even stronger now that my body is healthy." He began, eyes straight ahead on the path, his voice neutral and conversational. "It was awesome and most challenging. We were almost caught by another ninja group, Hidden Cloud Ninjas, but Gai-sensei and I prevailed in the end! I am the Green Beast of Konoha once again!" Lee chuckled to himself, "Although it was strange to do a mission without Neji-kun and Tenten-chan; I almost missed an opening because I was so sure Neji-san would get it, but do not worry, Sakura-san, I got it in the end! It was most exciting!"

As Lee blustered, Sakura tried to smile and nod, offering small uh-huhs along the way. Lee was not her favorite person (although neither was he her least favorite), but any negative signal he picked up would probably mean he'd try even harder to get her to listen, or worse, he'd ask what she was doing at the monument. He was ... observant to a certain extent. More observant than Naruto and just as talkative. Still, as he continued talking about his team and his latest experience without them, Sakura's heart leadened further, despite the continuing smile. Then he started to go into detail about the openings he'd almost missed, what he'd be expecting his teammates to do and how he'd avoided the mistake. The smile was gone by the time they stood outside her home.

"Thank you for walking me Lee-san, it was very nice of you." She offered. Lee blinked. Sakura was thanking him? For something that wasn't a matter of life or death?

Lee looked the girl over. He had heard her crying but the cause was clear so he had not pursued it. Now, on second close observation, he was aware that the things he'd noticed before. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were darkening bags he'd not noticed before. She was a little thinner too. She radiated that she was ready for Lee to leave, but instead of hollering at him, like she had at the Chuunin exams, she passively waited for him to go. He had not seen her spending time with the other Genins recently. If he recalled correctly, she had not been out on any missions either. In fact, this was the first time he'd seen her in at least a month. He cleared his throat, steadfastly resolved to a new self imposed goal.

"Actually, would Sakura-san do me a favor? I think I sprained my hand on the mission. Normally, I would just take care and let it heal naturally, but to remain Kohana's Great Green Beast, I must not be injured!" He gave her a "good guy" pose with a thumb's up at the end. After a moment he stood back up normally. Sakura continued to stare at him, her eyes wide lacking full comprehension. "Would you, beautiful Sakura-san, dear angel, mend it for me?" He tried batting his long lashes at her, holding his mouth in a moronic looking "oh" while he waited.

It worked. Sakura snickered, just a little: a tiny whiffle of a noise and a half-smile. She sighed.

"Sure," She sat on the stoop and patted the space next to her. As he sat she reached for his hand to inspect it.

* * *

_AN: I was rereading for clarity and flow and decided to merge my original chapters 'Steadfast Perserverance' and 'Walk'. I felt there was too much of a lull until Lee made his appearance, considering my focus on this fic has changed somewhat from the original intention. Hope you enjoyed the update._


	3. Battle Wounds

_Breaking and Mending _

_Battle Wounds_

By Michaela Wills

"Sakura-san!" Rock Lee called into one of the medical wards. He poked his head in a door. The medical-nin and the patient looked up in astonishment at the unusual young man. Lee flashed a grin at them and then continued down the hallway. After so many visits he'd become at ease with the various wards and well practiced at finding his way around. Maybe she was in the records room.

"Sakura-san! Where are you?" He poked his head into the room full of files. Another medical-nin stared at him. "Whoops, sorry to disturb you. Do you know where I might find Haruno Sakura-san?" The young woman blinked for a moment and then hitched a thumb further down the hall. "Ah! Thank you!" Lee bowed, winced, and then continued down the hall.

"Saku-oof." As Lee went to stick his head in the next room down the hall, Sakura came to the door. Lee grabbed her shoulders quickly. "Sakura-san! I'm sorry I nearly knocked you over!" She looked up and him, and he noticed the vials in her hands, "Ahh! And I almost made you drop your precious medicines!" They stepped inside the room. Lee noted that it was more a lab than a ward, with many such vials in labeled containers on the shelves. He grinned.

"In repayment I will organize all the vials, here Sakura-san, you must let me take those vials so I may get started!" He tried to take the liquids from Sakura.

"But Lee-san, you don't know what they all are," she frowned, "And we keep them all organized anyway, see!" She pointed at the shelves: each self was labels and each vial had another label on it.

"Hmmm. Then I suppose I should do something that will not disrupt the medical things. I know! I will do one thousand jumping jacks!" Sakura watched in fascination as Lee looked ready to begin jumping, "NO! Jumping jacks would be bad, as they may disturb Sakura-san's precious vials! I will do TWO thousand push ups instead!"

With the proclamation made, Lee hit the figurative dirt.

"One! Two! Three! Four!"

The dirt, of course, being the tile floor. "Uhh, Lee-san?"

"Eleven! Twelve! Thirteen! Fourteen!"

"Lee-san?" Sakura had put the vials on the table next to her and now had a hand on her hip.

"Twenty –six! Twenty-seven! Twenty-eight! Twenty-nine!"

"LEE-SAN!!" Sakura kicked Lee in the stomach, sending him flying across the room. He crashed into a wall, luckily, one with no shelving. There was the sound of chattering glass as some of the shelves on the adjoining walls rocked minutely, but nothing fell to Lee's relief. A bit dazed the ninja peeled himself off the wall wheezing. He shook his head and thumped his chest as he hacked a little. Sakura firmly clenched her teeth and strode across the room, heaving and trying to get her temper back under control. With a cough Lee started to speak.

"That was a very strong kick, Sakura-san. It took the wind right out of me. But I must finish my push-ups." Lee shook out his head, smiling near-gleefully. Sakura rubbed her forehead briefly; it felt like she'd had a headache for days. In truth, she probably had and that was her own fault, but Lee wasn't helping. Taking a deep breath Sakura reached over and laid a hand on Lee's arm as he bent over to continue his count.

"Lee-san," He stopped and looked at her. "You didn't come to see me just to do push ups, did you?" She said softly. Lee stared and her and straightened up, Sakura stared right back. Lee pounded a fist into his other palm.

"Ahh! You are right. I came to see Sakura-san so she could heal the cut I got on my mission today." Lee turned to Sakura, his actions and words a replication of their well-practiced little 'Heal-Lee' drama. "Would you please heal my wounds, dear angel Sakura-san? The Great Beast must have no wounds!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and smiled a bit. "Sure. Come on, let's find somewhere for you to sit." Sakura started to look around the room. Over the past few weeks, Lee had become such a frequent visitor, she'd stopped trying to check him in properly and file everything. Usually, he would just find a chair or sit on a table where ever he found her and let her heal him; mostly bruises, small sprains, and hairline fractures. Nothing major.

"Uhh, Sakura-san?" Rock Lee rubbed the back of his head, his shoulders up to his ears and his head down. "I think I need to lay down for this one." Sakura's brow furrowed as Lee untied the leaf protector he wore unusually wide and high around his waist.

"Holy cow! Lee-san!" His suit was cut cleanly from navel to left hip. Without the protector, and now Sakura noticed the bandage under the protector, blood began to flow out and stain the green suit. Sakura swore, she must have ruptured the clotting and broke open the wound when she kicked him, and grabbed Lee's elbow, she turned the boy and shoved him out the door.

She forced him down the hallway, hollering at various assistants and other medical-nin to bring her things along the way: Inoue-san to notify Tsunade-sensei, Miyuki-chan to find Lee's records. Hirohiko-san returned, reporting an available room. Sakura steered Lee firmly down one last hallway before shoving him back on a bed. Gauze and water at hand, Sakura sat next to the bed to stem the flow. The suit was put to waste by a quick pair of scissors, cutting a hole in the stomach of the suit large enough that the lesion would not be touched.

"Lee-san, what happened?" Lee looked up at the ceiling as he mumbled.

"I failed to jump back fast enough. The mercenary got in close with a shuriken when I was covering for Tenten-chan." He picked his head up, "Don't worry though, Team Gai finished the job!" Lee winked and gave her his best "Good Guy" pose lying down. Laying on his back the effect was somewhat less than inspiring. Sakura sighed wearily, rubbing her eyes.

"Dummy," Sakura said, her tone somewhat warm, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you did it on purpose. You've been here so often lately."

"Sakura-san! How could you say such an awful thing! I am not dishonest about my injuries!" Lee protested, but he wasn't as enthusiastic as usual. He opened his mouth to continue his defense, but ended up wheezing again.

After the cut was bandaged closed and no longer bleeding profusely, Sakura bent her head and chakra to heal the cut, inside out. It was as deep as she had feared, but even as she feared the cut's depth, the path the blade had taken was remarkably clear. She probed the depth of the cut and got to work speeding cell growth, very carefully. Lee was very fortunate as nothing vital was cut. She reattached the open ends of the blood veins that caused all the bleeding. To keep from creating scaring tissues, Sakura returned her focus to the skin level and 'sewed' the layers of skin back together. The thin line of the skin could later be conditioned with a salve.

As Sakura worked, she failed to notice Rock Lee studying her. He'd pulled his head up to watch the procedure. Much more movement than that, he knew, would shift his torso and alert her to his attention. Her eyes were still clouded by bags and she still had not regained any of her usual weight. If anything, even more had slipped off Sakura's already-slight frame. But at least her eyes were less bloodshot and for the first time in weeks, Lee noted, Sakura had resorted to body violence when irritated.

Lee let his head drop back to the pillow. Tsunade soon arrived and Lee stoically endured the ensuing tag-team berating him for his carelessness. Finally, Sakura stormed out of the room, her work done. Tsunade sat down beside Lee, her hands gently probing her student's work.

"You know," Tsunade began after a few minutes of silent ministrations, "You are giving her good practice. Sakura-chan has been learning very quickly. But if you're not careful, you're easily going to go beyond what she's currently capable of."

Lee looked the other way, his fists clenched, "Hokage-sama, I, of course, can not understand what you mean." Tsunade grinned.

"I mean that admirable as you are, I don't think you can do what you are intending to single-handedly, at least, not without causing yourself grievous injury in the process. And since I worked on restoring your health so recently, I'm not keen to see all my work undone." Tsunade waited until Lee turned to look at her.

"Do we have an understanding?" She asked. Lee looked straight into her eyes, his most serious expression on his face.

"Of course we have an understanding, Hokage-sama." Tsunade nodded.

"Good. See to it you remember."


	4. Sprain

_Breaking and Mending _

_Sprain_

By Michaela Wills

The day Lee had scared the daylights out of her with his 'cut,' damn thing was a hand-length bloody gash in all reality, was a Tuesday. It was only Friday when another Genin came to disrupt the halls of the medical building. Sakura knew of the approach before she even got to the scene. A few assistants were scrambling away from the filing rooms that were one of Sakura's usual haunts with looks of terror on their faces. Sakura's brow furrowed: Lee-kun did not usually incite fear. She poked her head into the file room, but no one was there. Sakura suddenly felt eyes watching her and turned to look into the examining room across the hall.

It was Hyuuga Neji.

The disarming whites of his eyes bored into her the moment Sakura stepped into sight. He didn't say anything as she walked into the room; he just sat in the patient's chair and held out his right hand for Sakura's inspection. Two of his fingers had been snapped back and were swelling nastily. They were even slightly discolored. She sat down and studied the hand. He flexed it for her, the range of movement seriously impeded by the swelling.

"You practiced with it like this?!" She accused. Neji met her angry glare blandly.

"Yes."

"Why?!" She demanded, barely managing to keep her temper in check enough to avoid cursing, "Of all the idiotic things to do. If you had come right away, it was probably just strained. You definitely aggravated it and now it's seriously sprained." She fumed as she started to bend her chakra.

"I wasn't done sparring." Sakura's brows furrowed. She asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Who were you sparring?"

"Lee-kun." Sakura grumbled under her breath. Something about personally dismantling the green beast finger by finger. Neji wisely kept his mouth shut. Or perhaps he was just agreeing with Sakura. One could never tell with the Hyuuga genius.

They sat in silence as Sakura finished reknitting the tendons that Neji had pulled and snapped. When she was done, Sakura leaned back and wiped her brow. Neji flexed his fingers, first on his right hand, then his left as if he was comparing their flexibility. He scrutinized her with a glance, and then returned to focusing on his hands. Sakura felt him testing his chakra points, little puffs of his energy popping through one hand and then the other. Finally, he seemed satisfied.

"Thank you, Sakura-san."

"It's nothing, Neji-san. Just do me a favor and watch it with Lee-san. He's gotten far too injury-prone lately and I don't like it." Neji just nodded and headed for the door.

Sakura relaxed back into her seat after Neji left. Suddenly, his head poked back around the doorframe. He stood there hands in his pockets until Sakura looked at him, she refused to respond to the incomprehensible urge to jump at his re-entrance. The gesture reminded her of Sasuke.

"You need to be careful too. Your chakra, while functional, is not as it should be. You need to eat better and sleep to restore your balance." With that he was gone, leaving Sakura to blink at the empty doorway blankly.

When the hell had Hyuuga Neji started caring about anyone other than himself?!


	5. Dinner Date?

_Breaking and Mending_

_Dinner Date?_

By Michaela Will

Sakura stared at the kid. Konohamaru crossed his arm over his thin chest.

"Well? I don't got all day. I have to get back to training." Sakura warily shook her head.

"Thanks, Konohamaru-kun, but I'm not hungry right now. You go ahead and eat so you can get back to training." The kid glared at her openly, pursing his mouth in a disgruntled scowl. She turned back to her work with the chemicals. After a few seconds there was a loud thunk. Sakura jumped and looked over her shoulder to find Konohamaru had pulled himself up onto a table. He took off his Naruto-style goggles and started to clean them on his shirt.

"Konohamaru-kun?" She asked.

"I'll just wait here. Don't mind me." He held the goggles up to the light and then began to rub them again.

"Wha?"

"I'll wait until you're hungry. I can train after we eat. It's still early and since its summer I can train into the evening." He started to swing his feet, his sandals thumping rhythmically against the wall. Loudly. Sakura smiled wanly.

"Really, it's okay. I'll eat with you another time Konohamaru-kun." She looked over his face. His brow was furrowed and he shook his head at her suggestion.

"Not good enough." He proclaimed then he pointed at her work. "Go on, you need to finish that, right?" Sakura warily returned to working on the potent salve. He was right; this did need to get done or she was going to ruin it. She wracked her brain as she tried to think of a polite way to get rid of the stubborn kid while pouring chemicals. She stopped and forced herself to work slowly. It was not a good idea to be working with chemicals this potent while distracted. The rhythmic thumping was distracting her. She'd need to get rid of Konohamaru before doing anything else. She added the last chemical to the mixture and sighed with relief. Good, that one got finished. She examined the color and odor carefully to make sure it was correct and watched Konohamaru out of the corner of her eye. He was now carefully rubbing spots out of his throwing blades with his shirt. Why did the little brat want her to eat dinner with him so badly?

"Sakura-chan, what is that–" Tsunade rounded the corner to glare at her. Her eyes found Konohamaru first, and then they shifted to Sakura.

"Noise?" Sakura finished for her. "Konohamaru-kun decided to pay me a visit." Sakura started to see her way out. Surely Tsunade had something that needed doing.

"Sakura-chan won't let me take her to dinner." Konohamaru tattled at top volume as he pulled himself off the table. "I even offered to pay annnnd let her choose where. She says she's too busy and not hungry." The kid whined to his Hokage regarding her student's behavior.

Sakura tried to hide in the shelves of chemicals. Tsunade's mouth twitched into a smile and her eyebrow arched.

"Oh really?" Tsunade's voice was barely containing her amusement. Sakura's shoulders slumped. So much for Tsunade providing a way out, Sakura could already tell Tsunade was going to force her into the dinner date. Was this a date? No, Konohamaru was too young to be interested in girls, let alone her. She wondered what had prompted the invitation.

"Well Sakura-chan, you should be ashamed, making me the reason you can't have a nice dinner with Konohamaru-kun. You must be very hungry; lunch was hours ago. I'll, of course, let you off the rest of your duties for the evening and I expect that Konohamaru-kun will have nothing but good things to say about your behavior tonight." Her smile and laughter threatened to escape and her shoulders shook minutely as she turned to Konohamaru again. "I'll be looking forward to a full report tomorrow and don't forget to walk her home." Konohamaru nodded seriously. Tsunade's cheek twitched as she maintained a straight face. Barely.

Sakura bit back a groan as she let Tsunade shoo her out of the medical unit.

In a moment she and Konohamaru were standing outside. Sakura was sure she could just barely hear Tsunade cackling in her office. The two looked at each other. Konohamaru looked down, brushed off and straightened his shirt. Sakura twisted her fingers together. After a moment she recognized the nervous gesture and threw her hands down to her sides defiantly. Konohamaru coughed and looked up at her.

"Well, where would you like to go?" He asked. Sakura's brain was pretty much a useless thing taking up residence in her head.

"Eh?"

Konohamaru sighed, a little puff of air escaped in frustration. What a lot of work for one dinner. Still, he knew what he wanted and if this was the bargain, he'd see it through. He straightened up and held out his arm to her. Sakura blinked down at him. He shook his arm at her, glaring slightly. Finally, the meaning dawned on Sakura as she took his arm. Konohamaru pulled his head up and his shoulders back and started to lead Sakura through the village. Sakura held on, her eyes were popped wide as she still did not really believe what was happening.

They walked into town and Sakura, after a long time of not noticing anyone or anything, was suddenly hyper-sensitive to every look in her direction. She was rather red and embarrassed, being escorted around by a boy who didn't come up to her shoulder, but most people weren't taking notice. She relaxed as she was reminded that Konoha was bigger than just her and her problems. It had been a long time since she'd noticed anything outside of home, the medical ward, and training.

They stopped outside of Ichiraku. Sakura gawked at the sign. She hadn't been here since… since… she swallowed. She hadn't eaten at Ichiraku since Naruto had left.

"Is this okay?" Konohamaru asked. Sakura barely nodded, more in response to being addressed than an actual response. "Awesome!" Konohamaru grabbed her hand, "Let's go!"

Before she knew it, Sakura was sitting on a stool in Ichiraku and Konohamaru, in an imitation of Naruto sooo real it was almost frightening, was busy ordering ramen for them both. Sakura found herself smiling sadly as Konohamaru bounced on his seat to speak to the server. It hurt to see him acting like Naruto, but it was also reassuring.

After a few moments to get her bearing, Sakura was able to start asking Konohamaru a few questions about his training and his classmates. The kid babbled happily, giving proper background regarding his two usual compatriots to Sakura. He told Sakura about their latest hijincks. Apparently they were responsible for some of the latest minor pranks, or catastrophes depending on one's position, that were perturbing Konoha's civilians. Sakura promised herself quietly that she would start paying more attention; she hadn't heard of anything like this. If the hints regarding future pranks Konohamaru was giving her added up to what she thought they added up to, there were quite a few old, annoying biddies in town who were going to be spitting mad over the next few weeks. Perhaps she should warn Tsunade what to expect…

The ramen arrived. With hot ramen waiting in front of them the conversation lapsed. Konohamaru ate with the gusto of a growing kid. Sakura found she was enjoying herself, despite her earlier embarrassment. In thanks to his company, Sakura decided against telling Tsunade what was likely in store for her. It would serve the Hokage right for laughing at her.

"You're no' ea'in." Konohamaru looked up at her, his chopsticks in his mouth. He swallowed and tapped his chopsticks on the side of her bowl. "Eat before it gets cold." Sakura smiled and took another bite. She felt unsettled as she swallowed. No, eating still didn't satisfy her much.

"I'm pretty full Konohamaru-kun." She grinned at him. "I guess you'll have to finish it for me." Konohamaru took another mouthful of his own, and somehow managed to look both scornful and proud while stuffing his face.

"That would be rude. I bought it for you, so you have to finish it." Sakura was startled. She was so used to Naruto, who would have eaten it without a second thought that she'd forgotten Konohamaru wasn't her teammate, despite alarming similarity. "The old man would never allow something like that, so that's that." Konohamaru continued. Guess the Third had managed to rub off on his grandson.

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Sakura picked at her food. She tried to eat, but the bowl was still half full and she had no appetite. She wondered how stubborn Konohamaru was going to be about making her finish when someone sat down on the other side of her.

Sakura looked up to Rock Lee and Maito Gai taking the seats to her right. Rather than their usual loud rejoinders, both were quiet. Lee nodded to her and Gai gave her a quick salute before they turned to put in their orders. They looked… tired.

"Training?" She asked. Konohamaru poked his head around her back. Seeing Gai and Lee he gave the pair a toothy smile and a wave.

"We trained all day," Lee said as Gai took a grateful drink of water. "Gai-sensei is working hard with me to make sure we bring my body back to peak performance. We started at sunrise with laps around Konoha, sparring, aerobics, weightlighting, and finished about ten minutes ago climbing down the side of the Hokage memorials." He grinned happily, a bit of his usual vigor showing. "It feels good to be so active in the prime of youth."

"YES! My student!" Gai crowed with a burst of energy, "It is important not to squander your youth! It must be embraced! Take on all challenges in your quest for youthful skill!" Their food was put in front of them and Lee began to eat. After a bite or two Gai took a breath and continued. "You too, Sakura-chan, must embrace the challenges of your youth! I have not seen you training with Kakashi-san lately. My eternal rival is slacking in his duty as a mentor to youthful vigor!"

"Ahh," She began, knowing he was expecting an answer. She put a bite of food in her mouth so to have another minute to think.

"But Sakura-chan's training with the Hokage, right?" Konohamaru leaned over the counter and looked up and Sakura and then down the counter at Gai. She nodded slowly, having almost forgotten.

"And Kakashi-sensei's been leaving the village on a lot of missions. He's taking some really important solo stuff that only a really good jounin can handle. It's a relief for the elder council to be able to provide such a reputable ninja for clients after all that damage to Konoha's reputation." Konohamaru suddenly seemed incredibly knowledgeable about village politicking. He puffed out his little chest and continued, "But it's probably also to give Sakura-chan training time. After all, we can always use more medical-nin. If Kakashi-sensei weren't busy, Sakura-chan might feel conflicted about training too much as a medical-nin."

Gai was quiet for a moment after that, nodding thoughtfully. Lee stopped eating for a moment and waited. The after Sakura put down her chopsticks he spoke.

"How do you like the training, Sakura-san? You've gotten very good at it, I know."

Sakura found herself smiling happily at his praise. "Oh, yes, it's very interesting. There's so much to learn." She continued headlong into some of the material she'd been learning and the books she'd been reading.

The three listened and ate, watching her vibrate with excitement and proudly explain what she was learning about body structures and chakra points. They all knew about them, but her study had gone to such detail that she had Konohamaru goggling at her in a few moments. Lee was able to follow a bit longer before his was nodding along ineffectually. Gai was able to follow her right up until she started on current theories of chakra production, but by that point she got too theoretical for his practical brain. When she stopped and blinked in surprise at her behavior, Gai smoothly spoke up to fill the gap.

"Well it's clear that you mind is occupied in the pursuit of youthful enlightenment, but I have yet to hear what you are doing to train your body." Sakura hurriedly took another bite of ramen, both to cover her embarrassment at rambling, but also to avoid an immediate answer. This time, however, it did not work in her favor. "I see… It is decided then. Since my rival is not here to watch over his student, I shall gladly take up the mantle for him! Tomorrow, Sakura-chan, you will join me and Lee-kun in our laps around Konoha at sun-up! You must maintain your body's youthful vigor!"

Sakura barely managed to force down the groan. She took another bite to cover it and as she nodded. There was no way to get out of this one and Sakura knew better than to try. She suddenly looked down at her bowl. Her chopsticks were scraping the bottom and coming up without any noodles. When had she finished eating? Konohamaru grinned up at her surprised look.

"Do you want any dessert?" he asked.


	6. Morning Run

_Breaking and Mending_

_Morning Run  
_

_Part 7_

_By Michaela Will_

Sakura dropped herself onto the front step of the Haruno house. She patted her pockets one last time to assure herself the wrapped onigiri were secured properly. She then checked the strap on her water. She eyed the skyline to see if the sun was about to peak over the hills. It probably would in the next few minutes. That meant Lee and Gai were due any moment. Sakura yawned hugely.

She had barely been able to sleep, what with knowing how early she had to get up. But she was determined that Lee and Gai would not disrupt the whole block when they came by. The result was that Sakura had all too recently dragged herself out of bed and into clothes. The food and water she'd left by the door to make sure she brought. The thought of food right now was unpalatable, and a bad idea before this kind of workout, but she'd need it before Gai would give her leave to go to the medical buildings.

The pair in question walked down the street. Walked was probably the wrong word for it. Gai was bounding along and, in a tacit reminder of his still-delicate health, Rock Lee was half a step behind and slightly less bounding in his steps.

"Ahh! Sakura-chan! How good of you to be ready for us! Let us go!" Gai dragged her off the stoop and in a beeline for the road most directly out of town. The brisk pace followed some of Konoha's quieter roads, but even on the main roads there were few people up and about at this hour.

"NOW!" Gai began as they very quickly reached the gate, "Let us stretch quickly." To demonstrate, Gai sat on the grass and began to stretch his hamstrings. Lee and Sakura followed suit. He bounced back to his feet, legs spread wide and started reaching sideways over his head.

"Then we will all power walk the first two laps, Lee-kun, we are taking the long route today so there will be some light climbing for Sakura-chan to build up endurance. Then I will run 100 laps of Konoha while you run 80." He turned to Sakura briefly as he continued, "That is all I allowed Lee yesterday before moving to building his muscles and muscle reflex back up. That should take us until about 8:30. Then we will walk two laps to cool Sakura's body down, so we can drop her off at the medical facility at 9." He looked at Lee's serious face, and nodded. He then gave Sakura an equally serious nod.

He turned and began to walk briskly, arms pumping comically, down a notable path in the grass. There was a thin path of dirt packed down where the grass no longer grew. Clearly, this was Lee and Gai's normal track around Konoha.

Sakura began to walk briskly, but without the same arm-pumping vigor that Gai had. Lee fell in beside her, easily matching her stride. The early summer air was comfortable, even as she began to sweat and her breathing picked up slightly. Maybe she was slacking a little.

After the first turn around Konoha, Sakura found she was surprised. While Gai, five paces ahead, had occasionally burst into near-song describing his love for the summer flora and fauna of Konoha (and Sakura did have to admit she never would have noticed or appreciated the roses or the bluebirds without Gai's impressive displays of emotion) Lee had matched her pace almost perfectly and stayed pretty much quiet so far. It surprised her to think that even Lee could have mornings when he didn't feel chatty. However, when she looked over at him, he was busy smiling at the buds of the fruit just barely visible in the nearby trees.

"AHHH! How the creek glistens in the sun! How it chatters! Lee-kun! See the lovely frogs! Their first summer! What a bright moment of youthful summer: The first for these young frogs!" Gai looked back at his student, who nodded vigorously, grinning ear-to-ear while looking at the frogs in the creek surrounded by marsh brush and cattails.

"Is he always like this?" She asked Lee between breaths. Lee nodded.

"Gai-sensei is a lover of nature, especially spring and early summer. But he finds the loveliness of all seasons for us to marvel at all times of the day. A jog with Gai-sensei is always enlightening and enriching to one's appreciation of beauty and the beautiful spirit of mother earth." Sakura nodded.

"So I guess you're a nature lover too?" Lee grinned.

"While I am not as well versed in Konoha's wildlife as Gai-sensei I am learning. I have a field book full of useful plant information. It is helpful to have sometimes on missions." Sakura giggled.

"Well, I would have been surprised if you said you are a bird watcher." Lee shook his head.

"I have not the patience to sit still and watch the birds, although Neji-kun is quite good at it. The Byakugan is helpful for him in that hobby." Sakura imagined chibi-Neji sitting by the creek they had just passed, trying to watch a colorful, unnamed bird using Byakugan. It struck her as a slightly odd thought, although she could see it as a potential training technique for young Hyuugas. "He says that I am too active and has asked me not to join him on his bird-watching trips anymore." Sakura snickered as Lee's words conjured up a chibi-Neji watching a bird, only to have it fly away as an enthusiastic chibi-Lee jumped out of the bushes, arms pumping.

"Makes sense," She replied, "Is there a reason Neji-san and Tenten-san…" Sakura paused as she took a breath in, "Neji-san and Tenten-san are not here?"

"YOSH! That is two laps! Now we run! Go! Go! Go!" Gai suddenly surged forward, his five pace lead jumping out as he moved more swiftly. Sakura bent in to start jogging and began to pace her breathing: four steps in and four steps out. Lee continued to match her pace very nicely, his breathing less forced. As they slowed slightly to climb Gai's idea of a light grade, Lee responded to her question.

"Tenten-chan does not like nature so much as Gai-sensei and no longer jogs with us in the mornings. When we run in the evening she will come, but says that she needs more sleep in the morning than Gai-sensei or myself." Lee paused as he pulled himself up the face with a small huff.

"Neji-kun is not a running person at all. He stopped running with us long before Tenten-chan did. He spars in the morning with the Hyuugas. They will both join us for weapon training and muscle memory training after we take you to the medical buildings." Lee breathed in sharply and pulled himself onto the even ground again. He leaned down and offered Sakura and hand up.

"Ah." Sakura acknowledged the answer to her question. She smiled in thanks and jogged a few steps ahead of Lee. With a smiled the boy fell in with her pace again, this time half a step behind her.

In the 34th lap Sakura felt her energy flagging considerably. Lee had all but hauled her up the last few meters of that blasted climb this round. With considerable puffing, she began to pace herself again to begin the 35th lap. Suddenly Lee took several larger steps so he led Sakura by a few paces. He grinned at her over his shoulder and waved for her to catch up.

Sakura blinked as she puffed along. Lee was, Lee was… was he baiting her? Either way, she would NOT be left behind. Sakura pushed off, set on catching up and pacing with Lee. For the next few laps, Sakura lagged just a few paces behind Lee. She could only catch up as they reached the small climb in their path. He would consistently finish the climb a moment before her and offer his hand up for the last meter. Then he was off and a few paces ahead before she could react. But this time, this time she was going to get ahead.

As Lee leaned down to offer Sakura his had for the most wonderful 56th time he was surprised to find she already had her hand on the final handhold and was lifting herself over the lip. She steadied herself ever so briefly with a hand on his shoulder (ah! Would he ever wash his shoulder again without thoughts of her?) and sprinted off several meters. Lee whipped around to start jogging after her, a wide grin on his face as Sakura looked over her shoulder and waved him on.

Over the next twenty-odd laps, they took turned leading and baiting each other forward, Gai-sensei miraculously whooping and hollering with each pass that he made of the students. Sakura felt bone tired, but quite satisfied as they eased into walking the final two laps. They walked, wordlessly and Sakura was relieved when Gai changed the path so as not to have to climb the grade for this final passes. In repayment, however, the walked along a stretch of deep woods and Gai started pointing out and identifiying the visible flora in the area. Sakura took note of some plant and they all waited while Lee took a sample of a new plant for his field book.

Finally the trio turned towards the medical buildings. Sakura had her water and drank deeply, offer some to both Gai and Lee as they walked. They, in return, had pulled out their own water. Sakura could hardly guess where they hid the canteens on those skin-tight suits.

"Well, Sakura-chan! How do you feel! Does the jog not stir the spirit of your youthful heart!?" Gai exclaimed.

"Actually, I'm really glad I came." Gai blinked and Sakura continued, "Would it be possible for me to join you, NOT every day!" She emphasized to forestall the look of exuberance on Gai's face, "Just once or twice a week when Kakashi-sensei isn't around?" Gai nodded, large, watery tears brimming his eyes. A glance at Lee showed a similar expression: a watery smile.

"Of course! Youthful pursuits are ALWAYS to be encouraged! Lee-kun and I will be your challenge and your companions when Kakashi-san cannot! Ahh!" Gai reached out towards her, as if to hug her before spinning wildly on his toes. Lee nodded and whooped, congratulating Gai on his victory to encourage youth.

Sakura, for her part stood and wondered what she had gotten herself into, a toothy fake-grin plastered on her face. At least she knew she could always distract them with more training.

"Gai-sensei, Lee-san, you better not keep Neji-san and Tenten-san waiting, aren't you supposed to meet up with them for training next?"

"Ohh!" Gai thrust his fist into a cupped palm, "Thank you, Sakura-chan, yes! We must be going, Lee-kun! We must not allow our teammates to slack in their pursuits of youthful vigor!" Gai was off and running in a moment toward the Hyuuga compound.

"We will see you next week for a morning run, Sakura-chan!" Lee bowed and took off just as exuberantly as his mentor.

Sakura took and onigiri out of it's pouch and began to munch before she reported to Tsunade for the day's instructions.


	7. Cleaning

_Breaking and Mending_

_Cleaning_

_By Michaela Will_

She padded up the hill towards the apartment complex at the east end of town. It was just far too hot and humid in Konoha this summer. She pulled at the neck of her shirt. The latest report from Jiraiya suggested that he and his student were in the southern, sandy beach regions of the Fire Country. Lucky sap was probably dipping his feet into the cool ocean waters as she considered it, the wind from the ocean playing through his outspread hands in rapturous glee. She could imagine his simple joy in such things: standing with sand between his toes, arms outstretched and head tilted up to meet the sun. Enjoying cool water and salty breezes; things she had read about enjoying and experienced only under the strain of a mission, when one couldn't blindly adore the beach.

It made her grumble that she hadn't been asked along to share the fun. Jiraiya could have taught her and Naruto, right? She sighed as she finished climbing the last hill. Ah, well. Her imagination was probably better than the reality anyhow. She remembered Naruto's scornful comments about Jiraiya's perverted ways.

They might be at a inn or town instead of along the beach anyways and Jiraiya did send thoughtful intelligence very regularly. It was probable that they were gathering information, those shores were near the Wave country. It did her jealous little heart a tiny bit of good to imagine Naruto in an inn straining to hear the conversation in an adjacent room while Jiraiya chatted up the barmaids, slipping them something to loosen their lips all the while getting plastered himself. Good god, she could already imagine the serious scowl on Naruto's face; covered cuts and bruises from brawling with men whose information was of little value. The cheap, alcoholic smell of the inn, mixed with cigarette smoke and the tiniest bit of vomit hung in the air. And then some busty, decidedly unfriendly nin would grab Naruto's arm and leer at the sweet boy, inviting him to "trade village secrets" with her, an offer that made her innocent Naruto sick at heart, but he couldn't afford to pass up. It was for the sake of Konoha...

Sakura shuddered. Jiraiya would never put Naruto in that sort of position. She liked her imagination more when Naruto was on the beach, she decided, and firmly turned her mind back to Happy Naruto's Beach Adventure. She turned the last corner and Sakura found Team Asuma waiting for her outside Naruto's home. She looked at them as she pulled the keys out of her pocket.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked. Choji was mid-chew and paused for a moment and his throat worked as he tried to swallow. Shikamaru just barely managed not to roll his eyes.

"It's our mission." The Nara responded, his voice bland and even, leaving Sakura to wonder if he hadn't taken lessons from Sasuke before the Uchiha took off. The question answered, Choji resumed chewing at a more placid pace.

"Ehh?"

"He's serious, Sakura-chan. The mission we got assigned this morning was: 'To help Sakura-chan with her tasks for the day. Since it's the first of the month, we knew to find you here." Ino clapped her hand on Sakura's shoulder. "So let's get to it!" Ino actually seemed excited. No, she actually was excited.

"How did you…" Sakura began. She trailed off. Shikamaru snorted.

"You made your plans pretty clear when Naruto-kun was still here to whine at the top of his lungs when you made him 'help.'" Shikamaru grumbled. Sakura flushed at the reminder.

"_Come on Naruto-kun, it won't take long." Sakura grunted as she pushed along the recalcitrant ninja. They were causing quite the commotion and people were stopping in the streets to watch the young kunoichi pull, prod and generally force her teammate towards the Uchiha compound. Even some of their former classmates, used to this sort of ruckus following Naruto, stopped to observe._

"_Why do I have to help you clean Sasuke-teme's house? I never even clean my own house!" He sounded proud as he said it, digging his heels into the dirt again._

"_Because! I want it to stay clean for the day Sasuke-kun comes back. Don't you? And as his teammates, we should be the ones to do so!" She grabbed him by the scruff of the collar and succeeded in dragging him three large steps forward. "And because if you don't help me I WILL KILL YOU!" Emphasizing each word, Sakura jabbed her finger into the soft parts of Naruto stomach, causing him to flinch, in large steps, towards Sasuke's abandoned home._

"_Oh Sakura-chan! I'll help you!" Ino stepped forward out of the crowd, waving frantically. "I'll do a really good job!" She smiled and dimpled and it didn't take all too much to understand her likely ulterior motives for the offer. Sakura wondered if there was anything under Saskue's bed worth finding. She'd heard Kakashi mumble something like 'asexual Uchiha idiot' more than once when Sasuke had be unwilling to entertain female companionship.  
_

"_NO!" Sakura ground out of clinched teeth as she pushed Naruto along another few steps. "It's Team 7's job! And don't you forget it!" She glared at Ino and Naruto hit the dirt in a tumble. He yipped as he hit the ground and rubbed his elbow._

"_Why don't you let Ino-chan help you, Sakura-chan? You know she'll be better help than me. I'll just end up breaking stuff and you'll get mad at me." Naruto pouted up at his captor. Sakura sighed. She almost wanted to let him go when he made that face and spoke reasonably. He probably would break something._

"_No Naruto-kun. Sasuke-kun is part of our team, so we should take care of his things while he's gone." Naruto turned and pouted at his feet. Sakura sighed again and crossed her arms. "I'll treat you to ramen when we're done." She mumbled very softly, but not too softly for the ears of her partner._

_Naruto brightened up and looked at her. "Really?!" Sakura sighed, more indulgently this time._

"_Yeah, really. But just this once."_

"_OKAY! Let's get this thing done!"_

Sakura rubbed her head, embarrassed at the memory. "Well," She stepped forward and unlocked the door. "At least it's mostly just dusting today."

Team Asuma found themselves in Naruto's small apartment for the first time in their lives. Sakura returned the keys to her pocket and slid open a closet, taking out a few dust clothes, a bucket and a mop.

"Really since he's not here all we need to do is dust things and make sure that everything's neat. In a few months when it starts getting cold I'll change the linens for winter bedclothes and seal the windows."

Shikamaru's jaw hung slack as Sakura held out a dustcloth to him. He took it slowly.

"I can't believe Naruto-kun is this clean." Sakura now had a turn to snort as she held out another dust cloth to Choji. Choji shook his head briefly and put away the bag of chips. Pulling out a handkerchief, he wiped his hands carefully and then took the bucket from Sakura's hand and moved to the sink.

"Naruto-kun's not this clean" Sakura responded a smile touching her lips, "He's not messy, per se, but he certainly hadn't washed his bathroom floor recently either. The first trip took a while, but it's not hard to maintain once it's clean and there's no one here to make a mess." Choji looked over his shoulder.

"Where's the soap?" He asked. Sakura pointed under the sink and Choji started to fill the bucket with suds. "I'll take care of the bathroom here. Is it in the back?" Sakura nodded, a little dumbly. When he was gone Sakura turned to Ino and spoke softly.

"Are you guys buying him dinner after all this or something? Usually he's a little more social."

"Despite being a messy eater, Choji-kun's actually very neat about other things." Ino responded. "I guess he just wants to do a good job. I think he and Shikamaru-kun feel kinda bonded to Naruto-kun, especially after trying to track down Sasuke-kun with him." Ino took a dust cloth from Sakura and started wiping down the kitchen counters. "So after this is Sasuke-kun's house, right?"

Sakura actually laughed at how eager Ino was. "Yes, but it's not much different than here, just bigger. Actually, in some ways it was more of a mess than here. Naruto-kun's shower had a little mold, but it looked like Sasuke-kun took him temper out on some of the less-used rooms. We couldn't mend much of the furniture and just put it in a storage room. I couldn't throw out someone else's stuff, no matter how badly damaged." She shook her head sadly.

It had hurt, hurt deeply, when she and Naruto had first discovered the extent of the damage Sasuke had wreaked on the compound. The three rooms that Sasuke clearly lived in were neat and clean. The rest... looked like a demon had torn through. Any furniture the rooms had were upended, smashed and broken. Naruto had tried to fix some, but the individual pieces of wood had not only been ripped apart, but broken, many to splinters. Tatami mats had been torn up and shredded. The shoji screens were barely recognizable and Sakura could mend only a few. A few buildings and rooms had drywall that was shot through until it mirrored swiss cheese. Outside of that, Sasuke had let water damage corrupt the main meeting house; the drainpipes, or roofing, or something, had not been fixed in years and it had led to standing water that leaked into the walls.

From the outside the structures looked fine. But all the suffering the Uchiha had locked in and hidden, it was taken out on the adjoining rooms and buildings of the Uchiha compound. Rooms he'd known no one would enter but him. All that pain that Team 7 could not heal was voiced in the neglect and destruction of that compound. They'd failed him.

Her shame showed on her face. She could see it in Shikamaru and Ino's countenance. Shikamaru looked up, and Ino's eyes met his with a touch of fear. Sakura continued, her voice sliding into a depressed tone, "Naruto-kun couldn't do a lot, but he tried. He figured out how to patch the drywall. I've been patching the damage to the shoji and the rest of the drywall slowly. The tatami will have to be bought. It was too much for me to do all at once even when Naruto-kun helped. Shikamaru-kun, maybe while you and Chouji-kun are hear you could help me patch one of the larger spots of drywall? And clear the drainpipes?" Shikamaru's throat worked and then he found his voice.

"Sure, Sakura-chan." He took a breath and looked out the window, "I've helped my dad some around the Nara compound. Maybe I could check the roofs too, make sure they are sound?" She nodded, eyes wide at his generous offer. They cleaned and dusted silently for a moment.

"So Ino-chan, tell me the latest gossip from the flower shop! I'm so behind on it all!" Her voice was falsely bright.

Ino's mouth hung open and she tried to find words. Her eyes flicked to Shikamaru in astonishment. It was a testament to the strength of his personality that when he shook his head, Ino let the matter drop. Ino cleared her throat.

"Well! You wouldn't believe what old man Yamada is doing! Eitsuko-san was in the shop yesterday and she heard from Mayama-san's daughter that..."

It took about an hour and a lot of gossip before Naruto's apartment was clean. By that time Sakura was smiling, although all of them were aware it didn't quite reach her eyes. Shikamaru was certain there was a sort of dread hidden in them.

They walked to the Uchiha compound and Shikamaru immediately made for the roof, shucking leaves off the tiles and out of the drainpipes. Chouji quickly applied himself to mending the shoji panels, his fingers turning out to be more gentle than Sakura's and he was able to fix the damage more skillfully than she could. Ino went to do a quick cleaning of Sasuke's livable rooms while Sakura sat with Chouji, preparing the paste that would repair the drywall.

It was basking in Chouji's calm, gentle presence that made Sakura feel better. She didn't know how he said it without a word, but something about spending time with Chouji made her feel like she was doing a favor, and that this mess was not her fault. She had gone over everything that she'd done wrong for months now; what she could have done differently to make Sasuke happy and stay. Maybe if she'd been gentler, maybe if she'd helped him more, he wouldn't have had to suffer alone.

Sakura was smart enough to know, intellectually, that Sasuke had never asked to be helped and never would have accepted it. Still that knowledge did not assuage the guilt of her healer's heart. The fact that all the damage was inside bespoke of unwillingness to share this. But she felt that somehow she should have seen it without seeing. He wouldn't have accepted it, she reminded herself. It hurt to know that he had help waiting, to make his life a happier one, if only he'd reached for the hands offered to him. He'd slapped her hand away. His despair was unlike most, where one didn't know how to help himself. Sasuke did. He'd chose to be miserable and drawn into his own world of mad revenge.

And she'd asked him to take her with him. She'd asked to follow him into his dark madness.

She shuddered at the thought now.

"Sakura-chan," Chouji spoke softly, breaking the weight of her thoughts, "This one is mended. Are there any more?" Sakura nodded.

"Yes, let's put this one back in place and then we'll get the next one." They fixed the shoji back into the track and Chouji slid the last piece of the frame back in to hold it in place.

"Thank you for all your help, Chouji-kun." Sakura said when he returned with the next frame and latticework. Chouji smiled on her and it warmed her.

"You have nothing to thank me for, Sakura-chan. You know that." She could almost see his thoughts, like there was something more that he wanted to say. He sat down with the latticework, his fingers working deftly with a small knife to notch them together. Sakura cut a new piece of drywall and started to fix it in place. After a while, Chouji began to speak conversationally.

"I love my team, Sakura-chan. Ino-chan and Shikmaru-kun and I are very good for each other. Sometimes I think Ino-chan's mental jutsus have leaked into all our brains. It's like we know what each other is thinking sometimes." Sakura nodded, while Chouji spoke. She'd seen a little of that sort of thing. "But if I couldn't have them, and I wouldn't change them for anything, if I couldn't have them I would be very lucky to have you as a teammate." Sakura's eyes shot to Chouji in surprise. He continued to mend the shoji unperturbed. After a moment he looked up at her.

"It is a special teammate indeed who would care so lovingly for her friends when they are gone. I hope you know that. You are a very good person and they are lucky to have you to care for them."

Sakura managed to nod, her eyes were full of tears. She knew what he was telling her. She'd known it all along, she'd just needed someone to say it.

"It's not your fault, Sakura-chan. Sasuke-kun's choices were his own. Forgive yourself."

Sakura nodded. She nodded and her eyes stopped swimming in tears; the tears poured out. Poor Chouji. She needed to stop before poor Chouji was forced to try and do something about the tears. Sakura tried to swallow and stop crying. But then arms held her. Ino's arms, Ino's hand stroking her hair as they sat amongst the broken tatami and she began to cry anew. Sakura had always wanted to cry in this place, but with Naruto there she couldn't and by herself she wouldn't. Ino's voice shushed her and they handed her a hankie. Then another one. A few minutes later she cried through a third. Ino's hands soothed her all the while, holding her and rocking her. Ino's voice telling her it was okay over and over.

Eventually she wiped her eyes and sniffled and was done. Sakura sighed, she hoped that was the last cry for a while. Ino's hand was still on her back, rubbing in circles. They sat silently for a minute or two before Shikamaru knocked on the doorframe from another room and Chouji was a step behind. His eyes looked everywhere in the room but at the pile of two girls.

"Sakura-chan, it's dinnertime and I think the compound is clean enough for today. We should stop. I think you know this, but the meeting building has some rather bad roof damage. That's the cause of the water damage. Chouji and I are going to come back with you next month to fix it." He paused, his eyes flicking towards her, just for a moment. "Is that okay?"

Sakura nodded, "Yes, yes that's okay." Chouji stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"On missions in town my mom always cooks dinner for all of Team Asuma. We would really like it if you would come join us, Sakura-chan." She looked up at Chouji's open face, and Shikamaru's closed expression. A glance at Ino found her nodding, encouraging.

"O-Okay. That would be nice." Sakura smiled weakly. Weak, though it was, it reached her eyes.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Thank you to all of your encouraging this endeavor! - _

_This chapter marks a turning point, where I mentally started to use the "It takes a Village" approach rather than just the actions of an individual. Be prepared to 'see' more fingers in the pot than just Lee in upcoming chapters._

_So the question I put to you, readers, is this: follow or break canon? Traditionally I write in CANON. I think I may have one AU-ish story in the whole of my repertoire. My romantic muse (who has rarely seen indulgence at my hand; kisses are about as good as it ever ground out... and rarely that.) is screaming for me to break canon, yet my powerful canon-muse (who usually wins and reinforces in-character behaviors (You wouldn't believe how hard it is to write The Slayer's Lina Inverse OOC, even when you want to)) sees the ending that would fit Kishimoto's story. _

_Any other voices want to add weight?_

* * *


	8. Questions

_Breaking and Mending_

_Questions_

_By Michaela Will_

It was a few days later when Ino was minding the store. It had been quiet. Too quiet and Ino was bored. She'd already teased the flower arrangements and checked the water for all the flowers. She looked at the clock, wondering how long it would be until her mother returned from the market. Probably hours. Even longer than hours if she ran into someone and started chatting; good god how the woman could talk! She sighed and continued to doodle on the back of the order slips. Ino looked up from her doodles to check on the customer coming in and grinned at the shock of pink hair.

"Hey Sakura, what's up?" Sakura waved and came over to lean on the counter.

"Not much, just passing by. Cute Shikamaru-kun." She pointed at the chibi drawings. Ino had doodled most of their good friends, including a frowning Shikamaru sitting legs splayed with a Go board in front of him. He was leaning back to back with a chibi Chouji who happily ate. Shikamaru's opponent, a cute rendition of Shino, was sitting with his arms crossed while Lee jumped around behind him with an absurdly wide-eyed Kiba and a tiny Akamaru. Next was a little Hinata, feet folded in watching a chibi Neji fight Naruto, who was being pulled away by the scruff of the neck by a little Sakura towards a field of flowers that an Ino was sitting in; a large windmill shurinken poked out of the ground.

They chatted peaceably about nothing for a few minutes. Ino waited to see what Sakura had really come for.

"Umm, so, that mission your team had…" She started. She let her words drop off hoping Ino would pick them up. She grinned and obliged.

"Yeah, we went in for our mission and that's what Tsunade handed us. Quote: Help Haruno Sakura-san with her tasks for the day. Endquote. Total D-rank, but we'd be specially requested." She shrugged, "Mission report goes straight to Tsunade-sama and that's about it."

"The client?" Sakura asked. Ino shook her head and kept doodling while she talked. A little Tenten started to take shape next to the flower bed with a second windmill shurinken behind her.

"No idea. They weren't waiting for us to report and the request was anonymous. We clearly weren't supposed to know. It should be in the records though because someone did have to pay the mission fee for it." Sakura frowned deeply at that.

"Yeah, that's the thing. I snuck a peak in the file. I thought my mom had put it in or something, but it's totally anonymous, even in the files."

Ino's head popped up at that. They both had been working with Tsunade for the last few months and Tsunade hated doing any paperwork herself. Her students were a prime resource that she did not waste. They had handled copious mission files and knew that if even the request and payment files were anonymous…

"A shinobi then." Ino said nodding her head sagely, "They would have had to ask Tsunade-sama and pay her directly, in private." Sakura nodded and mused over the puzzle.

"That's what I thought, but who would bother to go through so much trouble. I mean, it's not like it was a big deal." Ino threw back her head in a full throated laugh.

"Yes it was!" she pointed her fingers at Sakura's chest to emphasize her words. "You were adamant that you and Naruto-kun would take care of Sasuke-kun's stuff and no one else! Whoever put in the mission order probably kept it a secret just to keep you from beating the stuffing out of them when you found out." She leaned on her forearms over the counter, drawing discarded. "I was surprised that you didn't protest that we helped you, even if it was a mission."

Sakura snorted, "A mission is a mission; what choice did I have?" Sakura paused for a moment, Ino's face suddenly expressed some concern and she watched her friend carefully. "I'm glad that you did come," Sakura finally admitted, "I did need more help. Still, I want to know who put in the mission and I can't figure it out. It's not my parents, not any other civilian" Sakura ticked it off on her fingers, "Not you or your teammates. Who!?" The wrinkles in Ino's forehead smoothed out and her look turned from worried to thoughtful.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Ino suggested. Sakura shook her head.

"I thought of that, but it doesn't make sense? Why would he bother?" Ino pursed her lips and then jumped up.

"Maybe to keep you from making him help!" Sakura shook her head.

"I haven't asked him to before, why would I now? Naruto-kun's been gone for months. He's smarter than to try and save himself from a situation that's not going to arise."

"Maybe Tsunade-sama put the order in herself?" Ino asked, but even her voice sounded unsure of the idea. Sakura's head bobbed back and forth as she weighed the thought.

"I don't think so. It's too… I dunno. She's so busy with all the other missions and is constantly worried about having enough ninjas as is; why would she put a chunin-genin team on a D-rank mission? It's not practical for her to have done that, don't you think?" Ino found herself nodding. It was unlikely the Hokage had time to conceive such a mission, nor would she put Shikamaru on it. His new status had already impacted the team, resulting in a substantial increase in C missions. They'd even completed a B one recently.

"Well, there go the obvious ones. Except Naruto-kun, but…" Ino faded off as Sakura picked up the thought.

"But here's too far away and there would have to be documentation if it was Naruto-kun. Same for Jiraiya-sama, although he never took much interest in me anyway." Sakura finished. They were silent for a minute as they each mused over the possibilities.

"Hey!" Ino brightened, "What about Iruka-sensei? He's a nice enough guy to request a mission like that just because you need help." Sakura grinned for a minute and then deflated.

"But I don't think Iruka-sensei knew I was cleaning the Uchiha compound and Naruto-kun's apartment. Would he?" Sakura frowned but Ino responded eagerly.

"Sure he would! All the rookie genins know and he does keep an eye on us." Sakura still shook her head.

"The academy has a lot of students I don't know that he keeps as much of an eye on us as you think." Ino just looked at Sakura for a moment. Sakura watched her in return. Wariness had suddenly entered the room somehow.

"Well," Ino said brightly and grabbing her doodles and steadfastly adding flowers to the little patch around her chibi, the wariness lifting, "Either it's Iruka-sensei or I guess you'll just have to live with the fact you have a mysterious benefactor." She grinned evilly, "Or stalker! Take your pick." Sakura wrinkled her nose.

"Eww! Ino-chan! Don't even suggest that!" She protested while her friend sniggered.

"Be careful next time you go to the bathhouse! The stalker might be watching! Ohh! Maybe it's Konohamaru-kun! You said he treated you to dinner, right? Maybe he does have a crush on you!"

"No way! Watch it Ino-pig! I might just sic a stalker on you next!"

The conversation degenerated into insults and ultimatums and speculative stalkers. When they finally had their fill, Sakura bought a small bouquet of chrysanthemums and left. Ino watched her depart; pointedly aware how Sakura had changed drastically from when they were girls. She remembered her complicated feelings at Sakura's choice of daffodils for Saksuke. It was a wise choice and multifaceted, much like the girl now. And chrysanthemums were an equally prudent choice as Ino didn't need to be told what they were bought for. They were common enough to be a simple gesture of thanks, but their meaning also said 'You're a wonderful friend.'

As for Sakura, she took the bit of ribbon with the flowers and split it in half with her kunai and tied together the flowers into two small bundles. She dawdled around Konoha, looking around shopping stalls. Finally, she started on her errands. The carts were full of summer vegetables and sweet fruit from the many gardens around the town. Sakura smelled fresh peaches, feeling the tender skins to choose some that were perfectly ripe and some that were almost ripe. She was especially careful in selecting a summer squash for her mother. When the errands were done and the produce at home with her mom, Sakura set out on her final and personal errand.

She was nervous at the door of the Tsunade's office, flowers in hand.

"Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura cautiously poked her head into the office. There was nothing thrown and the room was fairly quiet. Tsunade looked up from what she was doing and put down her pen. Sakura smiled. She was glad to see Tsunade doing some work! Tsunade waved her in.

"Come, Sakura-chan. What can I help you with?" She put down the pen and knit her fingers together, resting her chin on the steeple of her hands

"Ano…" Sakura hesitated before stepping inside. She had split her flowers into two small bouquets and wasn't sure how to proceed. She swallowed and put one of the bouquets on Tsunade's desk. The Hokage blinked at her. Before she spoke Sakura began.

"Thank you. For letting Team Asuma do the mission the other day: the one helping me, that is. I didn't even realize how bad it had gotten until I had help. And I know the mission probably annoyed you. Or it should have." She was babbling, she realized, and Tsunade was letting her. She firmly redirected herself. "Anyhow, there are more important things Team Asuma could be doing than cleaning empty apartments. So thank you, Tsunade-shishou." Tsunade grinned at her student and picked up the bouquet, silently. That silence was slightly unnerving.

"These are beautiful." She took a quick sniff and then grabbed a coffee cup and walked out of the office, waving Sakura to follow her.

"Thank you Sakura-chan. It'll be nice to have some flowers in the office. May I ask who the other flowers are for?" There was a grin in Tsunade's voice as she spoke. They stopped at a sink while Tsunade filled the mug with water. Sakura flushed a stumbled for words as they returned to the office.

"Well, I know – I know I'm not supposed to know who put in the mission, Tsunade-shishou. But you have to know, so I was wondering if you would give them these… As a thank you."

Tsunade put her flowers on her desk, grinning like a very gleeful hyena. She raised an eyebrow at Sakura, and Sakura gulped. Tsunade was clearly entertained by this. Too entertained. The look vanished. God, her mentor knew exactly how to scare the living crap out of her. Maybe it was Konohamaru. The last time Sakura had seen that face was when the boy "reported" on Sakura's behavior the day after their dinner not-date. Maybe this wasn't a good idea…

"Sure Sakura-chan," She plucked the bouquet out of the genin's hands, "No problem. Although you do understand I can't deliver it myself. SHIZUNE-CHAN!" Tsunade suddenly hollered. Sakura winced at the change in tone, but Tsunade turned to her desk and wrote briskly on a scrap of paper. Shizune threw her head around the doorframe, holding the wood for dear life.

"Tsu…Na…De-sama?" Shizune panted for breath as Tsunade handed her the bouquet and the paper.

"Take those and take care of that right now. Sakura-chan and I are going to practice some advanced chakra control. Please report back to me directly when you're done." Tsunade waved dismissively and Shizune's eyes scanned the paper quickly. With a perfunctory nod, Shizune shut the door on her way out.

An hour and most of Sakura's available chakra later, Shizune poked her head back into the office and gave Tsunade a nod, then closed the door again. When Sakura finished expending the rest of her chakra, Tsunade excused her with a wave. The exhaustion was palpable and heady, making her slightly faint as she walked home. She needed a nap. Tsunade played exactly the right game to make sure that Sakura did not find out where that bouquet went, not that she had intended to follow the bouquet to her benefactor, but it was a prudent move on Tsunade's part. Suddenly, she was home, in her room and exact knowledge of how she'd managed to move herself here escaped her. With a fervent prayer that she hadn't actually acquired a stalker Sakura dropped into her bed.

Sakura dreamed restlessly; her mind's eyes still wandering through the questions eating her conscious mind. They started with her wonderings regarding Konohamaru and led back to that night at Ichiraku. Then, as in reality, Lee arrived and sat beside her, but Gai was not in her dreams. Slowly, her mind turned the events of the night, until it was just her and Lee, sitting and talking companionably like they did during their weekly jogs.

When she woke Sakura pondered a new idea brought on by her unconscious mind, however inconceivable it was. Rock Lee would never have put in a mission for Team Asuma to help her. Lee was too direct for such a roundabout tactic or for secrects. Lee would have offered to help her himself.


	9. Routine

_Breaking and Mending_

_Routine_

_By Michaela Will_

Sakura's breath was slow and even as she jogged, her pace just a hair above a normal trot. Her feet plodded rhythmically, four steps and a four count inhale, followed by four steps and a four count exhale. Inhale, exhale. This action, her sandals strapped tightly to her feet beating evenly along the path was becoming a thing of comfort for her. Firm soil seemed to push back, adding a spring into her step, propelling her into the next one. While she loved sleep, she was starting to wonder how Tenten could ever pass up the routine comfort of a morning jog. Sakura's weekly runs with Gai and Lee had already turned into bi-weekly runs. Grated, Tenten ran in the evenings.

It was a lovely late summer morning. The air was warm, but not overly humid and brightly lit with few clouds overhead. A breeze wafted down the main streets of Konoha and it felt so deliciously refreshing to Sakura.

After a few minutes, she arrived outside of the medical buildings. She had parted ways from Lee and Gai a lap earlier. She leaned over to stretch her hamstrings one more time before entering for her shift.

The medical facilities were much like they always were: a light buzz of movement and energy hidden behind a calming façade. The juxtaposition was something that made Sakura wonder how patients could relax: they were stuck in beds, watching medic-nins scurry around under the thin veneer of barely concealed anxiety. Then again, most patients were ninja, and ninja dealt with greater anxiety in the field than any hospital situation could create. There was something comforting about open windows with gently blowing drapes next to a bed clothed in clean white linen. As long as the emergency wasn't in that room, it would only take a few minutes for the placidity to return. Compared with the strain of missions in the field, the banality of the hospital could almost be idyllic. Sakura began to make the rounds to visit the patients she'd worked on two days' prior with Tsunade. It was routine: Tsunade would supervise her work and then Sakura had to follow up with the patients and recheck her work on her own a few days later. She knew Shizune checked as well, just to make sure, but it was important that Sakura get comfortable with what the results of her work looked like.

The first patient, a chunin recently returned from a mission with cracked ribs, was still asleep. Sakura leaned over him and listened to his heartbeat and checked his other vitals briskly. Within moments she pulled up a chair and settled in to use chakra to review the work done under Tsunade's watchful eye. The ribs, as a set, seemed realigned and the lungs weren't disrupting them. With more minute care, she set to reviewing the cracks, finding them and reinforcing them with more chakra.

After twenty minutes, she got up and quietly moved to the next room down the hall and an Academy student who had dehydrated herself a few days earlier. Sakura checked over the still-sleeping patient and reviewed the careful list of nutrients and liquids she had imbibed, absently stroking the girl's blonde hair. The chart said that she would be discharged today, so Sakura made sure to have a good look over all of her vitals and check her chakra to make certain of the girl's strength.

The routine felt good. It felt comfortable. Sakura continued down the hall, rechecking mended bones, poison antidotes, chakra functioning, and every little thing in between.

The third patient, who was drowsily half awake, was a special case. Something had startled her while creating a clone and instead of a properly separated clone, the duplicate had been fused down her right side. She'd panicked and tried to detached it, but had instead reinforced the bonding with her chakra. Her jounin teacher had never seen this happen before and decided to bring her into the Hokage rather than attempt to disperse the clone himself. Tsunade had walked Sakura through the process of untying the bindings and separating the clone from the reality.

"G'mornn," the other girl's voice remained slurred by the compounds in her system. They had needed to drug her in order to calm her enough to detach the duplicate and the potency, due in part to her small frame, still affected in her system.

"Good morning, Miyo-chan, would you like me to get you some breakfast?" The girl shook her head. "Or maybe just a glass of juice? Do you think you could handle that?" Sakura asked solicitously as Miyo continued to shake her head. She continued to ask questions, moving from breakfast to conversational. "So are your teammates coming to visit you today? Well that'll be nice. We'll probably be able to let you go back on duty tomorrow once the drugs are out of your system, right? Of course, Tsunade-shishou will have to approve it." Sakura smiled at the quite patient, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. "Well, that's all I can do for now. I'll ask Tsunade-shishou to have a look at you later today, okay?" Sakura grinned conspiratorially as she took in the girl's countenance and waved 'bye.'

It was similar for the rest of the morning, although with better conversation. Visit patients, check her work. At noon she stopped to grab a quick lunch (her mother had made her a bento this morning; Sakura managed to scarf half of it) before she met three new patients in the afternoon with Tsunade. None of the new patients were complicated and Tsunade nodded with brisk approval as they worked through them.

After that, she hit the books. She sat in one of the lounge rooms near the Hokage's medical office and studied. The book was large and to sit comfortably Sakura propped her feet up on the coffee table, the book held on her knees. She turn over one page and then the next, studying the nuances of the circulatory system. Tsunade admitted she was the best medical student since Shizune and trusted Sakura to do a lot on her own, but there was still so much to learn. She had to keep up to the unspoken pace that Tsunade expected of her best students. Shizune had nudged her, thankfully, in the direction of texts that would keep her moving at the breakneck pace that their genius mentor expected, not to mention occasionally giving her a tip or two to break through learning blocks when a frustrated Tsunade didn't quite understand what Sakura had failed to grasp and why.

"Sakura-san," She looked up from her book. Lee stood in the doorway with a chagrinned smile. He picked at the wrapping on his left wrist. "Sakura-san will you heal me?" Sakura dogearred her page, frowning as she looked Lee over briskly.

"Sure, Lee-san, what happened?" Lee's smile turned grimmer and he unwound his arm. As soon as his wrist was visible Sakura noticed the puffy dark weals marking a closed chakra point. She closed the book and set it down as Lee came across the room to sit beside her, unwinding his arms and rolling back the sleeves of his suit. He sunk into the couch cushions with a small sigh and Sakura could feel it take on his weight. He leaned forward, almost as if afraid to relax.

"I was helping Neji-kun work on his Gentle-Fist, but a messenger came to call him away to the Hyuuga compound suddenly. He forgot to reopen the points before he left. Would you be able to open them? It feels…" Lee made a face and Sakura knew her own was marked in sympathy. Closed chakra points were really uncomfortable, especially for ninja who were used to using them and having them open, not to mention it was dangerous to leave them closed! She took Lee's wrist.

"Of course! After all, the great green beast must have no wounds!" She grinned at him, beating him to his usual mantra. Lee grinned maniacally, his 'good guy' pose coming out in the form of a thumbs-up.

"Yes! No wounds! Sakura-san, I am very lucky that you are always so willing to take care of me. You really are an angel, thank you." Sakura felt hot and could swear she felt her ears starting to pink. She ducked her head and reached for the next closed point. His arm was slightly swollen; after effects of the closed points. She noticed Lee's foot wiggled back and forth in an anxious twitch of a gesture.

They sat quietly as Sakura re-opened the points on his right arm and then his left arm. Lee smiled when both arms were cleared of the weals. Lee shook out his arms, and Sakura could feel him testing the flow, although she noticed it was nowhere near as strong as a normal chakra flow. She thought about what Gai had told her; that Lee could not use ninjutsu or genjustu. Even so, something seemed wrong with the flow. The boy started to stand up.

"Well, Sakura-san, thank you very…." Lee blinked and looked at his foot, and coincidentally the place where Sakura had just stomped down with her own foot. Using two fingers she pushed him back into the sofa and stood over him. "Ow?" He responded inanely.

"Oh no you don't! How stupid do I look?" Lee glanced up at the virago looming over him, puzzled.

"Sakura-san?"

"Come on, where are the rest of them?" He blinked. She raised an eyebrow. They stared at each other silently for a moment. Well, Lee stared while Sakura glared ferociously. She ground her heel into the top of Lee's foot. Finally, with a sigh Lee dropped his head and reached for his throat. After a moment he opened the clasp on his suit and unzipped it to the Leaf insignia at his waist.

Sakura sucked in a breath as he pulled his arms out of the sleeves. Lee's chest was a patchwork of closed chakra points, so was his back, she noted as he turned to release his right arm. Startled she realized that while she'd healed Lee over and over again, she'd never seen him expose his form this much, even with his so-called "cut." She felt the telltale flush rising again and sat back down, this time on the table so as to be across from him, reaching to gingerly rest her fingers on the first point near his throat.

It was a given, she told herself. It was a given for just about any shinobi to be well…

Gorgeous. Lithe and toned and attractively muscled. Even Naruto, last she saw, was growing well into his frame. That he'd begun training harder helped and Sakura had seen the difference. Sasuke had been unfairly well along to begin with but, Sakura admitted reluctantly, a tiny bit less defined in the shoulders than Naruto by the time they'd both left. But Lee spent every spare minute training: running made his body lithe, the sparring gave him tone, and the repetitions of punches, kicks, and lifting just about anything he could lay his hands on created youthful muscle that was beginning to show. That skin-tight suit must have been flattening out some of the definition although she couldn't image how. There was not an ounce of extraneous fat to be found anywhere. Sakura reached for the next closed chakra point but realized that there were none left at shoulder height. She tried desperately to shut down her hormonal response and act professional. Sakura looked up from his chest while reaching down his pectorals for the next chakra point.

Lee politely looked away, his hands resting in his lap with the sleeves of his suit crossed modestly beneath them. She noticed a slight redness to his ears and her fingers healing a chakra point caught the sensation of a pulse at a rate above normal-resting.

With a fluttery breath Sakura decided to finish this as swiftly as possible. She kept her eyes unfocused on Lee's shoulder, glancing down briefly, surreptitiously (was she a perverted sneak, enjoying those glances, even if they were needed?) to find the next chakra point. She licked her lips as she reached down for one of the last four points on his abdomen; the lowest ones. Sakura turned her head further and tried to sense the next point sightless. Lee coughed slightly, his stomach moving beneath her querying fingers just as Sakura realized, eyes wide, she'd missed the point she was aiming for. She gulped. She'd just accidentally felt up Rock Lee.

Callused fingers touched the back of her hand and with slight contact shifted her fingers left. Sakura nodded and healed the spot, noting that this time she could sense the point opening under her touch. She pulled her fingers back into a loose fist and Lee again guided her hand, lower and right, to the next point. She followed his cues for the last two points. She pulled her hand back and held it to her chest. She nodded to herself before picking up her voice.

"Okay, now turn so I can do your back." It sounded brisk and professional, mostly. She hoped. She shifted back over to her spot on the sofa and faced Lee's exposed back. This she could do easier. The tension released as Sakura moved confidently from one point to the next, hesitating only slightly at the final point a few vertebrae up from his tailbone.

"All done!" She smiled, pushing down the flutters and hiding behind as much of a semblance of a friendly professional veneer as she could manage. Lee turned to sit more comfortably and shrugged back into his suit. He didn't look at her until he was closing the clasp at his throat.

"Thank you Sakura-san. I really appreciate it." He smiled, his hands still working at the hidden clasp.

"No problem," She responded, "But remind Neji-san next time to undo that sort of work. That was really careless of him and he should know better." Lee nodded, looking up at the ceiling, his fingers still feeling around his throat. Were his hands shaking?

"Of course. I am sorry that I was not more careful to remind him this time. I will remember next time." Sakura watched his struggling fingers, yes, they were shaking.

"Here, I'll do it." Sakura leaned forward and playfully whacked his hands away. In a moment the eye and hook were found and clasped. She leaned back. Lee caught her hand.

"Thank you Sakura-san." They stared at each other. No posing, no over-the-top-rapturous theatrics. No blowing kisses. Sakura pulled her hand away and reached for her book.

"I-it's nothing, Lee-san," she grinned, but it was shaky and her pulse pounded in her stomach, "Anytime, anytime at all." She waved her hand. Lee watched her for a moment and Sakura opened her book, but couldn't start reading. Lee nodded.

"I will see you later on, Sakura-san." He left.

Sakura looked out the window and then stared at the book's open pages. In her mind she replayed what had happened. She put down the book. That was it; she wasn't getting any more work done today. He mind was in hyper drive as she tried to determine if there could be any logical, rational explanation why she reacted to Lee that way: besides the obvious.

Sakura gave herself credit for being a hormonal teenager and she did just watch a very attractive guy strip to the waist, but it was LEE for God's sake! Lee! He'd blown kisses at her the day they met and he still hadn't done anything about those terrible eyebrows! You'd think after all the teasing he would have trimmed them a little! How could she possibly go all gooey and fluttery over a guy like that?

Because he was sweet and terribly kind and a total gentleman. Lee definitely would treat a girl very well and take her out to dinner for nothing but a kiss on the cheek and a thank you. Plus, Lee never ignored her or called her useless. He helped her train and kept her company. He made her laugh and shared stories and smiles with her. He looked at people for who they were not what they looked like and that was the real reason he idolized Gai. Gai would never overlook the strength of a person's heart and neither would Lee. He was a little prone to melodrama, but she was starting to think it more cute than annoying. She could actually tell sometimes which ones were their private jokes: sometimes even Lee and Gai knew they were suggesting something impossible. She smiled at the thought. As she got to know him she'd found he could be thoughtful and quiet and sensible. Never the cool customer that Sasuke was, but…

Did one really want to love and idolize a self-created emotionally stunted ice cube? Particularly one that deserted the village in favor of 'power'? Sakura couldn't help the soft spot she still had for the Uchiha, but she was starting to understand exactly how unbalanced he was and how unhealthy the admiration had been. They, she and Sasuke, would not have been a good relationship. With eyes less clouded by blind adoration she was starting to see what kind of relationship a girl could have with Sasuke and she didn't really like what she saw. She didn't like that girl that she saw. The girl she had been. Sakura liked who she was becoming: a strong, respected medic-nin and that was a totally different person than she'd been around Sasuke. The person Lee saw.

Sakura stood up and returned the book to Shizune's office, letting the older woman know she was calling it a day. Shizune looked a little surprised, but agreed to let the Hokage, who was shut in her office with a reporting ANBU team, know that Sakura had left a little early. After all, she stayed late so often she might as well leave early once in a while.

So much for a routine, uneventful day, she thought, knowing her head would be spinning with these thoughts and comparisons, no matter how hard she tried to put them out of mind. After all, teenage girls think about these things.

* * *

_AN: Hope you enjoyed! Thank you as always for your encouragement!_

_I also apologize for messing with Lee's suit. I don't know if there is any zipper (although I can't imagine there isn't, no matter how stretchy it is even Lee can't get his rear through a neck-size opening) or where the zipper would be, but it worked for my purposes. I didn't really specify, but I think it comes off seeming like it's zipped through the front somewhere. I just figured if it was in the middle of his back it might be hard to reach. Maybe it's down the side behind the sleeve._


	10. Mission Requests

_Breaking and Mending_

_Mission Requests_

_By Michaela Will_

Sakura could hear the voices in Tsunade's office increasing in volume through the door. Tsunade's own voice was on the edge of taking off into a cacophonous shriek, she knew the signs. The other voice, masculine and considerably less ruffled, but no less intense seemed all but ready to go with Tsunade into a shouting match.

Sakura sighed as she opened the door, making sure to walk more heavily than usual and pressed the door into the floor so it scraped along nosily. This was what she got for taking pity on Shizune and offering to take the woman's shift. Still, the even Shizune needed a break from the personal madness embodied in their Hokage and Sakura had not wanted to go home. She would rather be busy than at home thinking. Thinking these days resulted in a mental tango where her mind flitted with alarming frequency over romantic potential in her life. It was just too much.

"I said she needs…"

"Is everything alright, Tsunade-shishou?" she asked. Tsunade and her jounin antagonist looked up as the door opened. Both of them had their hands splayed on her desk, their faces inches from each other as they hollered. They had both paused at the door opening and comically acted as mirrors of each other, turning to face the door with identical timing. Then Kakashi languidly stood upright at the entrance of his former student.

"Well Sakura-chan, I'm glad to see you. You're looking well." His eye crinkled with pleasure and Sakura smiled happily to see him, the feeling rising from her chest and reaching her eyes. It felt like it had been months since Kakashi had spent any time in Konoha. His eye, probably both eyes as Sakura often wondered if he had perfected the art of seeing through the head-plate with the sharingan and chose not to reveal it, roamed over the form of his student almost as if looking for something. Sakura squirmed in the knowledge that Kakashi could probably see her empty stomach. She still wasn't always hungry and today was one of those days where food didn't taste good…

"Kakashi-sensei, it's good to see you too. Tsunade-shishou, what in the world are you two going on about? Half the building is starting to tiptoe around in fear. Surely if Kakashi-sensei wants a few days off before his next mission he's deserved it." Sakura couldn't imagine why Tsunade would deny Kakashi anything, what with how hard he'd been working the last few months. Kakashi's perusal of her body stopped as Tsunade harrumphed a response.

The Fifth Hokage had sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, clearly ruffled by the proceedings. She'd snorted as Kakashi spoke to his student and frowned deeply at Sakura's gentle words.

"Sakura-chan, if it was a few day's rest he wanted he'd have it! Kakashi-san I suppose we'll have to—hey! KA-KA-SHI-BO-ZU." Tsunade ground out dangerously as Kakashi whipped a scroll off the desk and walked toward Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, this is the next assignment that our esteemed Hokage-sama has asked me to take and I have accepted. But I requested to have a teammate for the trip. If you'll read this part here you'll see that any shinobi would have requested a hand."

Sakura skimmed the document. It was a reconnaissance mission in a neighboring small, but not hostile country. The document indicated that the group to be watched, a rather dangerous mafia-esque clan, were beginning to work within the limits of the Leaf Country and of course were unwelcome by the daimyos of those regions. Thus, the mission was to determine if they could be effectively removed without another clan getting ideas and trying to fill the vacuum. Reconnaissance now, and should a successful means of eradicating the group be found, they were to be removed in a separate contract with Konoha.

It was a promising contract, but the group was led by two brothers and their adult families. As the families lived separately, they would bear watching at the same time, and forays to gather intelligence on the political and social structure of the town they worked out of would be necessary to determine if there were any possible usurpers. Really, a full four-man team should be deployed rather than a two-man team, but Konoha was shorthanded.

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura began, her brow deeply furrowed, "I can't say I understand. Kakashi-sensei has a point that as least two people would be necessary to complete this mission successfully." Tsunade was glowering at her pupil. She glared at Kakashi and then back at her stunned pupil. Her mouth worked. Finally she threw her hands into the air.

"Oh fine! I suppose it's only a few weeks at the worst. You better not get her killed, Kakashi-kun," Tsuande shook a fist at her jounin, and Kakashi obliged her temper by making hesitant arm movements to ward off the strength of his master. "I want her back in full health and one piece and not a minute later than is required, you got that!?"

"Wha…" Sakura began as Kakashi put his hand on the small of her back, nodding and agreeing to every irritated word that came spilling out of Tsunade's mouth, including some rather impressive cursing.

"I mean it, Kakashi-teme! If there's so much as a scratch on her that I have to heal you'll be cleaning sewers for weeks!" She shook a scroll at him, "And don't think I'm joking! I'll... I'll send Gai-san on YOUR missions!"

"Yes, of course, yes Hokage-sama. Sakura-chan and I will need to go pack now, Hokage-sama. We will report tomorrow before we head out." Kakshi's hand steered Sakura gently towards the door and now she began to stutter with her mentor sputtering behind her.

"Y-You mean that y-you and Tsu-tsunade-shishou were…"

"Arguing over whether or not I could take you with me on this mission? Yes. I requested you for a partner and Tsunade-sama immediately told me I could take anyone I liked, including Shizune-san, but that she needed you here. It seems she doesn't want to risk her prized medical student on any missions."

"But Kakashi-sensei, I'm still just a genin. Why do you want me along?" Sakura frowned. A genin on a stealthy mission like this, certainly at least B-ranked considering the detail, probably A-ranked since it was for Daimyos and the Leaf Country's sanctity, might be a liability. Shikamaru would have been more aptly suited, or perhaps Hinata for the Byakugan.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi admonished in the way he did when he was being playful with his students, "I'm hurt, you don't want to come on a mission with me? I haven't worked with anyone but you and Naruto-kun in a long time. You're my teammate, of course I asked for you."

Sakura flushed at his praise and admonishment. He was right. While she wasn't perfectly suited like Shikamaru or Hinata, she was his trusted teammate and understood how he moved. She also noted how her mentor neglected to mention Sasuke. Was her sensei as deeply hurt by Sasuke's defection as she was? He'd never acted hurt or depressed, but as Sakura considered it slowly dawned on her that Kakashi never mentioned the Uchiha unless someone else brought it up. Even then he was circumspect and allowed others less comfortable with the conversation to steer it elsewhere. Kakashi suddenly patted her shoulder and then pushed her gently down the street that would lead her home.

"Besides, with Tsunade's training you'll pass to chunin on the next test. It's coming up in a few months, right?" He paused. Sakura realized he was right. After than first disastrous chiunin exam and her self-isolation the first few months following Naruto's departure she'd barely noticed the absence of the genin teams who traveled to Hidden Rain almost three months ago. Who had passed to chunin? She couldn't remember. "Go pack. I'll see you at sunrise in Tsunade-sama's office." Kakashi turned down a different street and casually waved goodbye to his student, but Sakura could see the tell-tale creases in his mask that signified a brilliant smile. She knew she'd have trouble sleeping tonight as she was already mad with excitement to get out of the village and do something useful, not to mention spend time with Kakashi. Oh!

Sunrise. Sakura turned away from the road home and carefully thought over Lee and Gai's schedule. She turned towards the training grounds and began to walk quickly. They might not be there for much longer and she needed to let them know she wouldn't be running with them tomorrow morning.

The training grounds were always full of young shinobi in the early afternoon, but due to long habit, Team Gai could always be found in the same place. Sakura leaned against a tree for a few minutes to watch them practice. Neji and Tenten were sparring two-on-one with Lee, who was fending the pair off quite competently. With a playful smirk, Sakura dropped her hand to her side, next to the case with her kunai. A flick of Lee's eyes early on had indicated he knew she was there, but the way he moved suggested that he wasn't considering her a variable in the current fight. Sakura thought that maybe she should spice up the sparring a little bit. She let her eyes rest on Tenten until a scanning glance brought their eyes together. Sakura gave a slight nod and her hand closed on the kunai she slowly removed from the holster. In response Tenten shook her head as if blinking something out of her eyes and took a few steps back, guard up. Lee's eyes flicked to Neji, who was a fair number of paces away, before moving up to engage Tenten in close combat.

The first kunai shot between Tenten and Lee, the second nearly caught Lee's chest and would have if he had not already leaned back. The third, aimed at Lee's new chest location was caught and Lee chucked it to the side just in time to catch Sakura's arm and redirect it from his chest as she closed with a chakra-charged punch. Her fist hit the ground and ruptured the earth around them, causing all four fighters to jump: Sakura and Lee to the trees above and Tenten and Neji back to the hedgerow.

Sakura dodged a flying kick and using chakra moved to crouch under a tree branch. Lee landed in the branches off to her right and Sakura suppressed her chakra, but not quickly enough. Lee moved in her direction, only to grab a log when he tried to haul Sakura out of her hiding spot. Kunai flew at Lee's head from the hedgerow and he dropped to the uneven ground below and into an immediate fist-fight verse Neji's gentle-fist style. He dodged the incoming kunai from Tenten as he warded off punches aimed at his chakra points. A roundhouse sweep caught Neji's left leg enough to put him off balance. Tenten's kama covered Neji's opening before Lee could exploit it. After five steps that were clearly guided by Tenten's weapons, Lee jumped and rolled over Neji, who took the opening to hit a chakra point in Lee's spine, but just in time to miss two Sakura bushin dropping out of the trees with chakra-charged fists.

Climbing to his feet, Lee raised his hands. "I yield. I would have to start using lotus gates to keep fighting three-on-one. Ahh! But how wonderful! So thrilling! So beautiful! If I had not known better I would have thought Sakura-san has teamed with Neji-san and Tenten-chan often! It was so well done!" Sakura grinned as Tenten offered her a high-five and the two slapped palms.

"Tenten-san gave me the opening. You just fell for her fake-out, Lee-san." She grinned and mockingly shook her head. She opened her mouth to continue and noticed belatedly she was teasing. She stopped and shut her mouth abruptly. Teasing might be a bad idea. She and Lee had not spoken much since the confusing afternoon she'd opened his chakra points and when they had it was carefully manipulated on both their parts to bypass the event and avoid anything awkward. They were friends, right?

"Ohh! Sakura-san, of course! You are right. I must be more vigilant in noticing a reality from a ploy! How kind of you to offer me a lesson to improve myself!" Lee continued in rapturous terms, oblivious to Neji as he brusquely touched his hand to the small of Lee's back to open the closed point. She shouldn't have worried. Sakura resisted rolling her eyes as she heard hasty parting salutations from Neji and Tenten, but she was smiling happily as Lee continued, "Sakura-san, may we spar again sometime soon? Your chakra control is so even and you suppress it so well! It is good practice for me to try and notice other people's chakra use."

"Sure Lee-san," Her smiled waned briefly, in his enthusiasm Lee was starting to invade her personal space and she took a step back. He noticed and with a hurried apology stepped half a pace back. She found herself comparing him to Naruto now. They had the same sort of eager, honorably winsome nature. Both were straightforward and undeniably had their cute moments. But like Naruto, Lee's attempts at getting her to go on a date were a little too forthright. On the now rare occasion since his injury that he asked for a date Lee was still far too intense! Well, maybe not as bad as she had thought… or had his mannerism just stopped bothering her? His formal speech was kinda cute and certainly more polite than the way Naruto spoke to her. She found she was grinning at him and enjoying the melodic pace of his speech. Right on cue, she registered Lee's last comment. He was drilling holes into her with hopeful eyes, hands clasped in front of his chest as he pouted, in what she guessed was supposed to be a puppy-dog manner. It just looked moronic but she giggled anyway.

"Thanks Lee, but more sparring and then dinner, I really can't. Definitely not. Actually, I came to let you and Gai-sensei know… say, where is Gai-sensei?" Lee's eyes, if possible, went wide.

"Gai-sensei is, well, he is helping another student train. As a favor." Sakura was puzzled.

"Another student? But I thought jounins were only to take on one set of three genins at a time." Lee shifted and then began to walk away from the practice field. Sakura, naturally, fell in beside him to continue the conversation.

"Well, you are correct, Sakura-san. That is why the training is a favor. After all, Gai-sensei is very strong and there is no better jounin to teach taijutsu than Gai-sensei. It is only natural that others would ask him the favor of his tutelage when looking to improve taijutsu. In this case, he accepted and has a fourth student for this week only." Sakura nodded.

"That's very kind of him. So you and Neji-san and Tenten-san are training by yourselves this week?" Lee nodded.

"Not the whole week, but for a good portion, yes, we are to practice in all combinations among ourselves. Gai still is joining us with his fourth student for morning practice."

"Ah! That is what I wanted to tell you about, Lee-san." She stopped when Lee did, in front of the bathhouse, Lee made a gesture indicating this was his destination. "I'm going on a mission." She grinned at Lee's pleased surprise, "So I won't be able to run with you tomorrow morning. I hope this doesn't mean you'll run alone, Lee-san?" Lee puffed out his chest and waved off her concern. As he waved his hands, Sakura notice blood on his left one. She grabbed his hand and unmindfully stepped into his personal space to examine it.

"It is fine, Sakura-san. I can run by myself and I will do 90 laps each day while you are gone and then you must catch up with me when you return." He grinned, ignoring his hand. Sakura discovered it was actually his palm that was sliced and bleeding from two shallow lines. She ignored his comment.

"This is from my third kunai, isn't it? The one you caught? I thought you got it by the handle." Sakura began to heal the cut.

"Thank you, Sakura-san, but it is shallow and this is unnecessary…" She sent a strand of chakra to brainstem and caused Lee to become sleepy. Lee stopped protesting under the influence of Sakura's chakra combined with her finger to his lips. She could tell he would have continued with much more exuberant protests if she'd let him continue. Probably something about making his hands stronger so such little cuts wouldn't bother him in the heat of a real fight. He found his voice again and mumbled, "The great green beast… no wounds." She snickered to herself and lifted her chakra off him as the last of the cuts mended closed.

Lee shook his head, groggy. After a moment he gave her his patented good-guy smile and a thumps-up. Sakura smiled and gave him a less-enthusiastic, but still happy thumbs-up before leaving him to his bath. She still needed to pack after all.


	11. The Other Side

_Breaking and Mending_

_The Other Side_

_By Michaela Will_

After cleaning himself as hurriedly as his sluggish mind would allow, Rock Lee slid into the hot water of the bathhouse. With a deep sigh he leaned back against the walls of the deep pool and closed his eyes, moving his towel to his head. He had not known that one could induce sleep with chakra until Sakura lulled him into that drowsy state. That, in combination with all his practice, had just kicked his behind from one side of Konoha and back. He was tired. Bone tired.

His extensive injuries while fighting Gaara of the Sand and the enforced time off from proper training (not saying that he had not trained, but only that it was not sufficient training) before and after his surgery had reduced his endurance considerably. He had regained his speed and agility; even his chakra control, muscle memory and mass were restored. But building back his endurance was something else. It resulted in this bone-tired feeling. He knew it would pass, but still…

He would forever be like older shinobi, who could feel the rain coming in the bones. It ached now but would not slow him down forever. Eventually his old endurance would return and then he would continue to train and push his endurance beyond into new growth as always. But the whole of the experience had succeeded in subduing his temperament in ways he had not ever considered. Even for him, Gai's energy and enthusiasm, very occasionally, was too much for him to endure. And every time that happened, it brought him to true, sorrowful tears. It was the old childhood fears that his strength would never be enough to prove a taijutsu master is equal to any other Konoha ninja. He would never be exactly like his great mentor, Maito Gai, and achieve his life goals.

Pushing his bangs back, his thoughts began to rise from the abyss of his fears. The lotus blossom of Konoha blooms twice. Lee was becoming comfortable with the idea that he would never again be a footprint matched to his mentor. He was beginning to look past that goal, a goal indicative of his youthful adoration, and towards a more powerful goal to surpass Gai. It was still a fleeting idea but the seed was planted: in part by Naruto's unyielding faith that he would become Hokage; in part by what he referred to as his 'second bloom,' his medical recovery at Tsunade's hand. Maybe one day if he worked hard enough the full growth of his second bloom would allow him to surpass Gai. After all, that was the real dream of any true teacher: to see his pupil's strength surpass his own. He had not told Gai of this thought, but he was sure that Gai would be proud.

It was a small change, but it meant the world.

Small changes led him to this place. A place where he was acting less than straightforward. Kimimaro had said that Lee was as linear as his name and that was still in his nature. But…

But there were times that being straightforward would do no good. Telling Sakura that he feared for her and wanted to see her happy again would not help her overcome her misery. It would not bring a smile, lift away the bags under her eyes or help her to eat and regain her strength. Healing him made her smile. Caring for her friends made her smile. The morning jogs actually got her to laugh now. These… diversions he put in her path were more likely to bring a smile or allow for cathartic release than any amount of telling her his worries.

Konohamaru's antics got her to smile too. It had taken very little effort to convince the boy, after a long morning of taijustu-only sparring with Gai and himself, to play a prank on the Hokage earlier in the week. Naruto's younger friend seemed to find him a useful if less constant replacement for the blond. He was glad the boy had liked his suggestion. Pranks were not Lee's style, but hearing about them from a gleeful Sakura, was priceless.

In a way, he told himself, it was better than straightforward: he was taking action to help her feel better instead of just asking her to feel better. He just sometimes felt bad when he did not tell her the truth. It was not that he wanted any reward, far from it, her smiling again and laughing was more than anything he could ever ask for. He touched his shoulder as he thought of her brilliant, breathless smile that first jog, when she finally got ahead of him. But he felt it was deceitful not to tell her that he put in the Asuma mission, even if the topic never came up, especially after the night where Shizune had stopped by his home with flowers for him, from his Sakura, as her thanks. He'd wanted to run to her and thank her for her gift. Instead, he chose to care for those flowers very carefully and there were still two left that had not wilted.

It was a quandary that only one such as himself could get into. Yet, he was not ready to stop. It was clear his… diversions were doing good and that was the true intention behind his actions. She was carrying more weight again, but not yet her normal weight. Her sunken eyes seemed better and more from the breakneck pace of her training than worry, fear, or hurt. As long as things continued to help Sakura, he could justify his actions, even if they felt a little sneaky.

He did not like feeling a sneak, but the mission report from Nara Shikamaru made it clear there was much further to go. He was grateful the Hokage gave him a copy, thinking of the text that had frightened him the most:

'_When Haruno-san led us to the Uchiha compound we found all the buildings have considerable damage to almost all existing interiors. Haruno-san has been working alone to repair the damage since Uzumaki-san's departure 6 months ago. Team Asuma has volunteered to assist in further reconstruction, but we recommend that professional assistance be requested, particularly to address the plumbing needs of the structures. To cover the costs of such extensive renovation and since the buildings have been uninhabited for more than the required 6 months, we recommend that Hokage-sama take the matter of the Uchiha compound to the Konoha council and consider enacting Village Code C3.12 to take custodial charge of the residence until such a time that…_

… _After a period of approximately 3 hours in the compound, we were forced to halt repairs in order to tend to the emotional needs that Haruno-san exhibited. It is Team Asuma's impression that Haruno-san takes an unproductive personal responsibility for the Uchiha compound, even though she intellectually understands that the Uchihas bear direct responsibility. For this reason we feel it is in the Hokage's best interest to take charge of the situation and remove this perceived burden from Haruno-san to prevent an emotional stagnation that may eventually inhibit her growth as a kunoichi.'_

The words gave him shivers the first time he read them, particularly 'unproductive personal responsibility' and 'emotional stagnation.' It had taken him an hour of pacing in his home to avoid running down to the Yamanaka flower shop to ask exactly what 'emotional needs' entailed. The reasonable reality that Ino did not know he was involved was the only thing that restrained him. He was still temped to ask Shikamaru directly, hoping that it would be too much trouble for the boy to bother mentioning Lee's query.

He had not imagined there would be any hurt in cleaning her teammates' homes. Yet, it made him glad that he had put in the mission request and that he had requested Ino's team for the job. The next day Sakura had looked… lighter. Still, he entertained bribing Tenten with a new pair of kama to find out exactly what happened. God, when had he become so, so… sneaky?

The towel slipped to the left and Lee caught it and readjusted it so it was sitting better on his head. If Sakura was going to be gone for a few weeks on a mission that meant Kakashi had finally taken action to get his student into the field. Lee wondered if Gai had anything to do with it and figured he would ask later. It was probable that Gai was giving Kakashi a hard time about caring for his student, especially since it had been a good month and a half since Sakura had started running with them. Kakashi, despite outward appearance otherwise, was susceptible to Gai's opinions. They were rivals and friends.

No, he had not become sneaky. He was a shinobi and every shinobi eventually used some sort of subterfuge, except, perhaps, for Naruto. No, Lee amended thinking of the skillful manipulations Naruto employed to fool Kiba and Akamaru, not even Naruto was completely without guile. He was already sneaky. It had been his idea that he, Tenten, and Neji pretend to be unremarkable genin entering the chunin exam. They intended to let their fellow examinees underestimate them until much later in the testing series. It was to be a feint to throw other teams off and gain an edge during later challenges.

Yet Sakura caused Lee to desire his full strength and to show off his skill from the start. And once he had shown his hand he saw no reason not to challenge the Number One Rookie, Uchiha Sasuke. In punishment, Gai had given him an earful when he was the captive of a hospital bed on the virtues of sticking to the plan and holding oneself to a higher standard; one that does not show off in front of pretty girls and wipe the floor with Uchiha geniuses at inopportune times. Then he was made to reread _The Art of War_. It was Gai who had taught them that at times subterfuge was necessary for shinobi, even when they were of the highest moral caliber.

A few bribes and a mission to ensure a smile on Sakura's face was worth it. She was more… accepting of him now than when they first met and it was not because she saw him as an invalid (although he knew his hospital time had not hurt). It was the daffodil that made him realize how to approach Sakura. For all his direct efforts before, he garnered a show of affection while unconscious. She gave her affection freely when it was not asked for so Lee stopped asking. Instead he acted as he would with Tenten or Neji and treated her with courtesy and friendship. She had returned in kind, perhaps more. He moved slowly and she seemed to be coming around.

He had not missed the secret thoughts her body language betrayed when she reopened his chakra points. She had been unusually aware of him; her touch had almost burned with the flushed heat she gave off. His own heart pounded erratically through the entire thrilling process, as she opened the points on his chest and his back. He had not intended to ask her to heal those points. He planned for her to open the arm points so as to ease the discomfort enough that he could wait for Neji without fainting. It had taken all his control to leave and end the intimate moment. If he had done as he liked he would have embraced her in a moment, blushing and stuttering. His imagination waltz freely with the image of Sakura in his arms, sighing with content, leaning forward and resting her head against his shoulder tracing patterns with her fingertips on his chest. And then maybe she would whisper his name, without any suffix, and pull his head down to hers….

In reality, blushingly aware of him or not, she would have kicked the shit out of his ass and gave him to Tsunade to heal roughly.

No, it was better to leave her to her studying. It heartened him that she was aware of him. In the last few months she had come to treat him like a friend. In the last few days she was treading as carefully with him as he with her: a sure sign, according to every romantic comedy he had ever seen, that her interest was growing. She sought out his company, laughed and smiled brightly with him. As her behavior in front of the bathhouse pointed out, he no longer needed to ask her for healing. She was interested in making sure even his smallest cuts were healed. Maybe it was an excuse to touch him again?

Nah. In many romantic comedies the girl did not understand her own feelings until much later. Plus, there was still her love of Sasuke. He would have to wait, probably until the Uchiha returned, for the moment in all romantic comedies where the girl confronts (or is confronted by) her former love and realizes that he is not the one she wants anymore. Sasuke would stand there, hands in his pockets as Sakura approached him. They would speak, with a mere foot between them and finally after a long moment Sasuke would step forward and put an arm around her shoulder, bringing them face to face. And that would be the moment that would decide if all Rock Lee's effort would be repaid with romance. In Lee's more realistic moments, he knew that it was very possible that Sakura's eyes would flutter closed as she tilted her chin up, trying not to purse her lips in an unbecoming manner as a smirking Sasuke dropped his head to claim her.

Now in his optimistic dreams, ahh! Then Sakura would stare at Sasuke and shake her head. She would tell him that she did not understand, _Why? Why now!? After all this time?_ Her eyes would fill with tears and she would reach up to him and stroke his cheek. What he answered, if he answered, would not be important. Sakura would lean forward and close her eyes, but turn her head aside. Near the Uchiha's ear she would whisper, _I'm sorry_, and with tears coursing down her cheeks she would push his arm away and run. She would run uncaringly through the streets of Konoha for anyone and everyone to see until she found him, where ever he was she would be drawn to him like a lodestone. Uncaring of what business he was doing or who was there to witness she would throw herself, crying, into his arms and he would wrap her in his loving embrace and whisper, _Sakura-chan? Are you alright?_ And she would laugh, laugh through her tears and lean back to give him her most brilliant smile and say, _Yes! I've never been better! I finally realize I love you, Rock Lee!_ And he would smile and tell her, _I love you too_, and give her the kiss that he had been waiting so long to give her…

"Oi! Lee-kun! Rock Lee?" A fuzzy hand waved in front of his face. "Dude, I think he's out. Must have let the heat get to him." The voice turned away to speak to some one else. Lee groggily started to blink. There were two forms in front of him…

"Kiba-kun." The second form spoke. The first form whipped around and leaned forward. The brunette was starting to come into focus. He pulled Lee upright and forced him to pull up further out of the water.

"Lee-kun, man, you can't pass out here like this. Shino, get him something cool, don't just stand there." A moment later a cool sponge pressed against his shoulders, releasing water down his body. Kiba and Shino came into full focus. Shino held out a bottle of water. Lee took it with a nod and pulled himself to sit on the lip of the pool, shifting his towel to his lap. He started to drink.

"You gave us a scare, man. We get here and you're alone and I thought you were just relaxing but then you slid further in. You could have drowned yourself!"

"He would have woken up if his head went under." Shino remarked from behind the lip of the coat. Lee blinked at them while he drank the water. He swallowed.

"Thank you Kiba-san, Shino-san. I appreciate your help. It is like you said; I guess the heat got to me. I apologize for causing you trouble." Kiba waved it off.

"Nah, we're cool, stop with the formal talk, tho, would ya? He doesn't mind –kun either." Kiba said with a head nod toward his teammate. He wore nothing, as one would in a bath, but Shino… Lee realized he was staring at the lightweight black raincoat. Kiba laughed "Don't worry, he gets it a lot. I keep tellin' him it'll be easier just to leave it off and let 'em see the bugs comin' out, but noooo…" Lee was curious.

"Do they mind getting wet? The bugs, I mean?"

"The human body is 70 water," Shino pointed out, "They don't mind it."

"They wash too," Kiba continued with a fanged grin, "Sort of, anyhow. They take turns coming out and stuff. Dunno exactly how it works."

"Ah." There was a pause, "Well, thank you again. I should be getting out now." He looked around briefly. The three of them were still alone, "And that way you can take off the coat, Shino-kun."

Kiba immediately latched onto this idea and began hounding his teammate. Lee moved to the other side of the room to collect his things and prepare to leave. The boys from Team Kurenai gave him an idea for his next step. When Sakura returned from her mission, he would ask for something again. He would ask Sakura to call him Lee-kun and see what happened this time.

* * *

_AN: Thanks again to all those still reading. Your encouragement is quite rewarding! So I formally let a few cats out of the bag with this one. I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed showing Lee's thoughts and daydreams. I apologize for the stilted treatments of Sasuke and Shino. I'm not a Sasuke fan so I don't mind him being stiff, but Shino I like and will round out if I get a chance._

_It think it's worth noting I'm probably using a tighter reign with the Japanese suffixes than even Kishimoto-sensei. That's because I only read in English translation I'm not confident about what is in the original. Translations seem to drop them except for certain cases (Sakura doesn't use any for Naruto, but does for Sasuke-kun) and I'm not sure if it's translation or Kishimoto's intention (I think it's intentional, but...). In this fic I'm going with the traditional Japanese route that to drop all suffixes is a sign of extreme closeness._


	12. Dreams

_Breaking and Mending_

_Shifting Dreams_

_By Michaela Will_

Sakura heard them calling her name. It echoed through the woods, but she couldn't locate where the voices were coming from. She closed her eyes and focused, trying to take notice of the chakra signatures. They were dispersed, moving, she couldn't pinpoint them. She needed to find one. The trees around her did not seem to be the native forests that surrounded Konoha, there were more evergreens than deciduous trees, and it was getting dark.

"Sakura-chan." Kakashi's voice called from one direction. "Sakura-chan. It's time to go." His voice beckoned in a subtle but firm and indefinable way. She turned towards it, ready to follow. They were on a mission together, after all.

"Sakura-chan. Oi! Oi! Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice whispered in an excited vibration from another part of the woods. She turned towards it. Naruto, to see Naruto would be wonderful. There was a dapple of enticing golden light from that direction.

"Sakura-chan." She stopped. She knew that voice, she knew that tone. She turned, dread and excited affection mixed into a sickening amalgamation. She couldn't tell if her feelings were happy or angry and she didn't like it. She wasn't in the unfamiliar woods anymore. She stood on the night road in Konoha across from Sasuke. He had a pack on his shoulders. She knew this moment she knew what he'd say next. He sighed.

"Sure, you can come." What? That was wrong! This wasn't how that night went! Her eyes were wide, her hands clasped gleefully in front of her.

"Really? Do you mean that Sasuke-kun?" No, she didn't want to leave Konoha. "Ok, let me throw some supplies in a bag." Sasuke looked up.

"Ten minutes." He intoned. She nodded eagerly and took off home. No, no! Her body grabbed a pack and started throwing weapons and scrolls inside. No! She wanted to stay. She'd said that she would go when this happened, but she certainly hadn't meant it as enthusiastically as this! God, she didn't want to go with Sasuke! Not to Orochimaru! She picked up a change of clothes. She wanted to stay! To be Tsunade's student! To get not-letters of encouragement from Naruto! To be strong! To run with Lee and heal him. Still her body finished packing and returned to Sasuke's side.

"All done!" Sasuke was leaning against a fence by the side of the road. He moved slithering back to his feet. A snake's forked tongue darted out of his mouth licking the air as he walked toward Konoha's gates.

No! She wouldn't go! It hadn't happened like this! She wanted to stay and be with Lee and Tsunade. She needed to grow and become a stronger person. Her feet picked up and she fell into step beside Sasuke. She didn't want to leave! She refused! No!

Sakura jerked upright. Her eyes wide, she panted in dim light. A light had just clicked on. It was what woke her in such stunning surprise. She looked over to where Kakashi sat staring out the window.

"They're all asleep. We can go and raid the office now. Point or guard?" He asked. His eye somehow told her that he knew she'd fallen asleep, that he knew it was a nightmare. He was distracting her; Kakashi's rough version of comfort.

She found herself wishing for Lee's version of comfort, his soothing presence.

"Point." She replied firmly. She was going to be damned if she'd be left behind again. She'd sworn that when Naruto returned she'd be strong enough to help reunite Team Kakashi. She'd rather go through the papers than be left behind to sit guard. He tossed something to her that she caught easily. It was a pen light, designed to clip over her ear. She put it on.

"Right. Just remember to put everything back how you found it. We need the information, not evidence." She nodded as Kakashi slid languidly to his feet. Kakashi tilted his head to the side. "Although if you can copy the evidence, that would be useful."

The two Konoha shinobi stealthily crossed the streets, barely a whisper of a shadow. Kakashi skillfully jimmied the lock open in as much time as it would take for a kunai to whisper across a square. She slipped inside, Kakashi a pace behind. He grabbed a chair next to the door and tipped it back sitting in it like a bored watchman.

Sakura slid down the hall and into the office. The pen light turned on, she rifled through the first desk. With her thoughts firmly set to the task at hand, the sheer horror of her nightmare became less terrifying. The most consoling thought remained that it wasn't real. Sasuke had probably understood that leaving Konoha would have been much harder on her, one reason that he didn't accede. The more salient reason, of course, was that he didn't want her along, but it was nice to think that his leaving her was a somewhat charitable act. The most frightening was that she worried her affection towards Sasuke was turning to dread. Best not to think about it. She put a small scroll, opened only a little at the top, to the side and a bit of a pencil.

An hour and 3 stacks of scrolls and paperwork later, Sakura had seen all that she needed to. Replacing everything perfectly where she found it, she checked the numbers on her small scroll of notes. With a quick burst of chakra she performed the 7 seals: dog, dragon, rat, memory, gate, gate, snake. Sakura pressed her hand into the notes and the handy reference jutsu Shizune taught her pulled her cross-reference numerical list into a full text document. The lines of chakra shot through the numerical list and found the scrolls that they referenced. The numbers replaced themselves word-for-word with the text they represented, the page lengthened, extending off the desk and onto the floor.

Sakura snatched it up, rolling it into a scroll as she went, cautious that her expenditure might alert some of the few chakra users in the house. With a nod to Kakashi the jounin rose to his feet and followed her out of the house.

The mission was proceeding with nearly bore-inducing ease.

It was only a few hours and no sleep later that Sakura found herself wrapped in a jutsu that changed her facial features and hair color (black) walking the streets of the town for gossip. Dressed in the local fashion and with a basket half-full of various bits of food on her arm she would blend in easily. She waited at the fishmonger's stall listening to the women beside her discussing local politics.

"Watanaka-san's really been unconcerned about Isuru-san and his family. He thinks that their marital connection is enough to create loyalty." The two women nodded sagely, as if to suggest that neither of them would ever think such a connection would be enough.

"It should be, but it's through his sister, not his brother and Isuru-san doesn't think much of Nemui-chan. Poor dear. She probably stands to lose the most if they continue as they are. You know the animosity's only going to escalate."

Sakura stepped forward and asked for two codfish, speaking clearly, but softly enough that she could still follow the conversation behind her. The women continued to talk about the two families and Sakura paid for her package. She turns to admire the produce at the next stall, carefully placing herself so she could still hear, even though the conversation lasped into the necessities of ordering fish. They start to move away from the stall, talking about their children.

With avocados and bok choy in hand Sakura moved to pay for these items slowly, listening for someone new to follow. She brought her head up to smile at the young women helping her mother sell vegetables. As the girl turned away to count change Sakura blinked, her eye caught on a dark head to her left. Resisting the urge to double take, she causally took a careful second look she watched the head and the flash of a green collar. The man turned, showing the green to be a proper kimono, not an elasticy suit, and his nose and forehead to be wrong.

Not Lee.

Of course, Sakura took her produce and moved into the crowd. Of course it wouldn't be Lee. Lee was in Konoha and Sakura had, to her chagrin, noted at least three other Lee look-alikes in the week they'd been here. Or maybe it was just one man who looked like Lee that she'd spotted four times. Sakura then reminded herself of the Naruto look-alike, the Tenten look-alike from yesterday and two Asuma look-alikes as the jounin's scruffy look seemed to be in fashion among this village's male population. There'd even been someone her first day here that, while not looking like Sasuke really, had strongly reminded her of the boy. Still, it was Lee doppelgangers she'd seen with the most frequency. There was a pang of homesickness. She couldn't run in the morning here; it would stand out too much. Besides, she didn't want to run alone. It wasn't fun. She missed Konoha in a way that she never had on any previous mission. Of course, this was the first mission she'd taken without Naruto and Sasuke snoring on either side of her bedroll. It was just the loss of her friends here to entertain her that made her miss home so much.

If she was honest with herself, she knew it wasn't just Konoha she missed.

* * *

_AN: Sorry for the delay on this one and it's shortness. It's short because it needed to be short. There might be a few short ones in the next couple, not because I'm getting lazy, but just to allow for proper flow of time. As for the longer-than-usual wait, thank the madness of Otakon for that one._


	13. Respect

_Breaking and Mending_

_Respect_

_By Michaela Will_

"Kakashi-sensei?" She looked over at her one-time mentor, who sat back against the wall with one knee propped up. He looked over to her, letting his book drop. "Are you and Gai-sensei rivals or friends?"

If Kakashi was surprised by the question, he didn't let it show. They sat in a small attic room watching the building next door. The space was cramped and Sakura, no more than a yard between them, felt every inch weighing down on her. Kakashi somehow managed to look like her could live here for a week and not feel the tightness at all, even with his young student asking odd questions.

"Both I suppose. Much like Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun." Sakura nodded.

"So do you know his students very well?" She hedged a moment later.

"Well enough. I saw them training sometimes before I took on you guys. What do you want to know, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi looked out the window. Sakura slid up into a crouch, her hand on the kunai case. After a moment they heard another bottle break and the drunken hollering of the loud rancorous group of men celebrating. Kakashi and Sakura relaxed back into their hiding place. It would be hours before they fell asleep, but the partiers would all sleep like the dead making ransacking this office even easier than the first.

"So…" Kakaski prompted. Sakura pouted.

"Nothing." Sakura replied hastily. "Nothing! Just… What do you think about Gai-sensei and his students? I mean," Sakura continued, sensing she was heading into unfamiliar territory with her thoughts, "Everyone knows that Gai-sensei thinks very highly of you, but you never say how you think of him." Kakashi stroked his fingers against his mask thoughtfully, the book put aside for a few minutes.

"Gai is a talent like none other. I respect him very much." There was a slight pause. "Gai knows that I hold him to such a level of esteem even if I don't say it like he does. His students are lucky to have him."

They sat in silence for a moment listening to the men next door break more bottles, quailing attempts at karaoke reaching their ears. Sakura winced. The off-key singing sounded more like moaning. She thought she could hear some snoring as well.

"Lee-kun is especially lucky." Sakura startled and looked guiltily to Kakashi but he continued blithely, "Gai has brought him much further than any other jounin would have been able to. Few would be willing or able to teach him as Gai has." Now they were both thinking of Lee and the chakra gates, Sakura knew. The creases under his mask gave away the amused smile that probably hid beneath. "There is nothing wrong with admiring Lee-kun. He is very talented and I would be as proud to have him as my student as Gai is."

Lee occupied a lot of her thoughts lately.

Kakashi cleared his throat and Sakura lifted her head to the window. They were ready to move. She caught the pen light he tossed her and leapt to the opposite roof. The raid went as easily as the last one and this time Sakura was able to sleep the rest of the night.

Not that it stopped Kakashi from waking her early and telling she needed to wander through the shopping market again. Grudgingly, Sakura transformed herself into a blonde, a look vaguely reminiscent of a teenaged Tsunade, took her basket and headed into the marketplace for groceries and to listen to gossip. Kakashi had refused to perform this task at all during the last two weeks and it had become Sakura's job to listen to the tone of the town folk and mafia wives, trying to discern who would usurp if the opportunity arose. Kakashi did the same at the bars and taverns in the evening before their late-night raids.

Walking the now-familiar cobbled paths, Sakura was relieved not to see any Konoha look-alikes today.

"Will he do it?" She heard someone to her left whisper. Sakura, without moving her head, slid closer to the voice. Whispers meant something. "I mean, didn't he already get caught by the Fire Daimyo once already?"

There was no discernible reply, but the voice continued. Sakura slid behind the two young women walking together. "He should tell the Boss that he can't risk it then. It's for you and the baby."

"He can't do that and you know it." The other woman spoke in clipped, fearful tones. "He's leaving tonight and that all there is to it. All I can do is pray he'll come home." Her tone reinforced that it was the end of the discussion. Sakura looked the women over. Both had full baskets of produce and the woman with the baby strapped sleeping to her chest sighed and turned to the meat stall.

"Yomi-chan!" The other woman gasped and hissed as the young mother, Yomi, indicated to the butcher she wanted a pricey cut of beef. "Can you afford that?!" The women hissed in an attempted whisper. Yomi turned a steely gaze on the other woman.

"If this is the last supper I get to cook for Taka I want it to be worth it. I'll make it work." The other woman leaned back and allowed Yomi to continue unmolested. Sakura's heart broke for the fearful young mother, but she silently followed her through the crowd as she and her companion split up. She followed Yomi to a small home outside the center of the city, but still within the wall's marking the city's limits. Sakura hovered on a roof, watching the mother through an open window, first cleaning vegetables and beginning to cook, then stopping to change her baby.

Sakura darted away to find Kakashi now that the location of Yomi's house was memorized. Kakashi would need to know that some sort of expedition was leaving for the Fire country tonight. It may not change their mission, but providing the Daimyo with forewarning would all but guarantee another contract. With a silent apology to Yomi, who would likely be a widow before the week was out, Sakura sprinted across the rooftops both sorrowful for Yomi and glad that she was not destined to a life of waiting on a man.

Few civilians married kuniochi and more likely than not her eventual lovers (and in the unlikely event of marriage, husband) would be from the ranks of Konoha's shinobi. He would have to be a partner who understood that she could be lost in a fight as easily as he.

She found, despite years of wanting to settle down and raise pink and black haired Uchihas, this concept of a partner proved a more appealing idea. She liked the examples of this she saw: Jiraiya treated both Tsunade and Shizune as equals and deferred to their wisdom accordingly. Kurenai and her team were given as many missions as the others and all the jobs particularly suited their talents. After working with Anko once on the practice fields Sakura noted that no one dared to pull their punches or question her ability to whoop the stuffing out of them even if she was of the fairer sex.

She wanted men to treat her with that kind of respect, not just fear of nagging and yelling, but consideration to her talents. Lee already did, she realized, knowing Lee treated all the kunoichi with that level of equality. She liked that about him.

God, she needed to stop this. It was starting to sound like an obsession, even if it was restricted to her head.

Ducking into an alley, Sakura shifted her appearance again to a brunette, the disguise she was using for walking around the inn where Kakashi had booked a room and swiftly made her way back to the room on the second floor. She'd noticed Kakashi was sitting a chair in the corner of the tavern downstairs as young version of Asuma. Sakura didn't need to make any gesture but just darted for the room. With the door firmly closed, Sakura dispelled the justu altering her appearance. Twenty minutes of pacing later Kakashi entered.

"There's an expedition leaving for the Fire Country tonight." She told him quickly. He nodded.

"Then we have much to do."

* * *

_AN: Short again, but that's the way I wanted this one. More to come and thank you as always for your encouragement!_


	14. Mission Requests 2

_Breaking and Mending_

_Mission Requests, Part 2_

_by Michaela Will_

They stood in a line. Neji said nothing, Tenten nodded firmly once. Lee did not have a chance to saying anything because Gai beat him to it.

"My illustrious Hokage-sama, we will happily and faithfully carry out the mission that you request of us! We are honored and most dutifully grateful for the opportunity to serve Konoha in your stead."

Tsunade smiled. "Actually, don't thank me. Suna understands that we are under a strain and that I can't be present. However, as Suna is still an ally its necessary for me to send a representative and the letter I received indicated that Gaara-san would be particularly appreciative for the opportunity to see Lee-kun again."

"Oh! Lee-kun!" Gai turned to his student, his eyes clearly starting to water, "What a wonderful show of friendship from Suna! That the new Kazekage would like to see you at his confirmation to office! He must have been moved by your strength during the Chunin Exams!"

Lee found he was nearing tears himself, especially with his mentor's show of emotion. Lee could see Neji attempting not to roll his eyes, but Tenten was beginning to crack a smile. Lee cleared his throat softly. "Hokage-sama, I am also moved by this show of friendship from Suna's Kazekage." He blinked back the tears, but knew his voice and the set of his jaw gave him away. "We will represent you and Konoha with the true spirit of allied friendship that this occasion deserves." Lee felt the tears slip down his cheeks anyhow.

Next thing he knew Gai was giving him a bear hug and Lee returned it wholeheartedly and allowed open the floodgates of his emotions. It was an honor to be singled out by the new Kazekage in a show of friendship. Tsunade turned and sat back down at her desk, signing their visas and waving Neji over to accept the documentation while Lee and Gai continued their hysterics. Tenten then started to clear her throat loudly. Both Lee and Gai struggled momentarily and then succeeded in getting their emotions under control, just in time to bow with Neji and Tenten in acceptance of their mission.

As they walked out of the Hokage's office, Lee wondered when Sakura and Kakashi would return from their mission. It would be three weeks from their departure this Thursday. Acting as an envoy to Gaara's confirmation as Kazekage would mean he would be gone at least a week. Sakura may return before he did. He looked into the north past the boarders of the village. He did not know exactly where she went, but he knew she and Kakashi had left in that direction.

With a quick prayer for her success, Lee headed home to pack. The work of a ninja was never done.

* * *

_AN: snickers I know, tortuously short and a complete tease. I promise I'm building. The upcoming chapter "Return" will make this all worth it._


	15. Absence

_Breaking and Mending_

_Absence_

_By Michaela Will_

"Well, Good job. The Daimyo expressed in his latest correspondence exactly how helpful and competent he found the pair of you. Kakashi-san, you will certainly be included on the follow-up mission when we have prepared for it." Tsunade's eyes only flickered up from the papers in front of her when absolutely necessary. When she did, her baleful gaze carefully avoided Sakura in favor of glaring at Kakashi. Clearly, despite their three week absence, Tsunade had not forgiven Kakashi's strong-armed antics to whisk Sakura away with him. Kakashi cleared his throat. Sakura carefully stifled a tired yawn.

"Yes?" The hokage's voice dripped with malice. Her jounin was unperturbed.

"Nothing, Hokage-sama. Just some allergens in my throat; just consider me like a cat with a hairball." Kakashi's pleasant voice and manners did not fool either Tsunade or her apprentice. Tsunade thumped the papers in hand on her desk with all the pleasure of a cat in water. With a sigh the older woman waved her over.

"All right, all right. Sakura-chan, let me look at you. You haven't been hurt have you?" She shook her head as Tsunade's gaze covered her body. The Hokage turned her by the forearm making a brisk, but thorough inspection of her, like a prized cattle on the market.

"Not a scratch." She replied, rolling her eyes. Tsunade looked up to Kakashi grudgingly.

"Fine. You get to live. I will consider the possibility of sending Sakura-chan on the next mission, but only if I deem it appropriate. You are both dismissed." Kakashi and Sakura quickly retreated. Tsunade was not in a good mood. Shizune immediately opened the door making it clear that she had been listening, as the former-student felt it her duty to usher out the two as quickly as possible.

"Is she hung over?" Sakura hissed to Shizune once the door closed behind them. The woman shook her head.

"It's not just that, although she is a little. She's upset about the Suna thing."

"Eh?" Sakura allowed the non-words to fall out of her mouth.

"Oh, you weren't here," She swiftly shifted around the wooden desk that sat very near the door to the Hokage's office. With a well practiced ease Shizune sat and started writing notes while speaking. Sakura was used to the efficient use of Shizune's multi-tasking and was not disturbed. Kakashi was already gone, so she sat down across from her unofficial mentor.

"Sounds like something big happened while I was away. Do I need to be filled in before my lessons with Tsunade-shishou this afternoon?" With Shizune it was always need-to-know and all attempts at gossip had to be couched in such terms. Sakura was curious. Had Suna switched alliances again? This could bode terribly for Konoha if something that drastic had occurred. The peace settlement that Konoha's Hokage and Suna's Elder Council had beat out, in a series of events appropriately highlighted by that exact choice of words, was partly dependent on the eventual Kazekage and could be easily undone…

"Oh, it's nothing that bad." Shizune chuckled a little under her breath, "Tsunade-sama is just feeling the first effects of the limitations of being Hokage. She wanted to go to the Kazekage's confirmation. I think she felt it her duty and that it would help to strengthen the alliance, but as Hokage, she doesn't have the freedom or leisure to travel as she used to." Sakura started at the ease with which Shizune discussed the matter, all the while writing her notes and filling out a ledger with neat columns of numbers.

"The Fifth Kazekage has been confirmed?" Shizune nodded, eyes flicking to the calendar briefly.

"Actually, he'll probably be confirmed the next few days, but we sent a team to act as ambassadors for the confirmation two days ago. I think Tsunade-sama still wants to call Katsuyu and try to make it in time." Shizune smiled, her expression giving Sakura a vision of Tsunade, her chakra charged fist bursting out of the walls of the Hokage Tower with a whoop and in a flying mass of rubble and drywall crumbs. The chibi-Tsunade then jumped with an abandoned glee onto the back of her giant slug friend, hollering obscenities as she went. As Katsuyu wheeled around faster than it was actually possible for a slug, Tsunade's Hokage robes snapped in the wind as little ANBU tried to follow her. It was an amusing thought. Still, Sakura felt heavy.

"Who?" Sakura breathed. She knew, somehow she knew.

"What?" Shizune, looked up, brow furrowed, "Oh! Well that is a bit of gossip I guess. It is unprecedented. They are confirming Gaara-san to the office. He's young, but unquestionably the most powerful Suna shinobi. He lobbied very… persistently from what the letters say and his siblings, who also have plenty of power, backed him." Shizune shook her head in awe.

"No, no." Sakura let the word stumble impatiently out of her mouth. Shizune's face was suddenly marred in confusion. "I mean, wow, that is wild, but I meant what team did Tsunade-shishou send?" Shizune smirked, or more correctly, she smiled in a manner more amused than Sakura was used to. Shizune never smiled like that, so while it reminded her of a smirk, it was not as humorless as a real one, a Sasuke smirk, for example.

"Ah! She sent Team Gai. After their fights it seems Lee-kun and Gai-san made an impression on Gaara-sama. Tsunade thought it most appropriate to send the whole team." Sakura nodded and Shizune, in a rare display, stopped to watch Sakura's expression quizzically for a moment. Sakura was sure she was about to speak when Shizune took the opportunity to return to her documents. Sakura let herself sit quietly and watch for a moment before gathering her wits. She stood up.

"Thanks Shizune-sempai. I'll be back later." Shizune gave Sakura's back a distracted wave.

Sakura walked home, her face carefully schooled into an expression of neutrality. Once in the safety of the bathroom she allowed her the disappointment to overwhelm. Why was she upset that a loud, bushy-browed, green-clad shinobi was out of town when she returned? She turned on the hot water and stripped. She and Kakashi had reported to the Hokage Tower immediately upon arrival and all Sakura had really wanted was a bath and the opportunity to turn in early later on tonight.

It was part of the deal, when you were both shinobi and not on the same team. Teams picked up and were sent all over the place at the drop of a hat. She should consider herself lucky that it was only Suna and diplomatic as opposed to Rock or Lighting Country and some sort of hostile threat-based mission. Sakura dragged the soap across her body listlessly. She felt so warm and sleepy again. The heat massaging her limbs seeped in and added to her weariness.

Stepping out of the shower, Sakura abruptly forced herself to change gears. Towel in hand, Sakura snapped water off her skin and ruffled her hair. She was home and he, his mission, anything related to him really didn't matter. She'd just been homesick, that was all. And now she was home and she would stop this… preoccupation. She'd train with Tsunade this evening, go running tomorrow morning (on her own, her stomach dropped at the unwelcome thought) and then seek out some companionship. Maybe Ino. She didn't want him she thought rebeliously.

Oh. God. Sakura stopped abruptly. Her thoughts rewound. Lee had become He and Him in her mind, not Lee. When had that happened? She'd now gone from constantly comparing him to Sasuke and Naruto to thinking of him in singular terms. This was not happening.

She lay on her bed with wet hair and began to busy herself with medical texts. Studying was her tried and true method to chase away unwanted thoughts. She used the books to rid herself of stray thoughts about Sasuke and of Naruto. The pages and pages of memorization chased away her worries for her parents and Kakashi. It would work again.

With the pencil she marked a key phrase and kept reading. A paragraph later she found all she remembered was that she would have to jog alone tomorrow. How many laps was she supposed to do? Damn. She thought of Lee's bow-shaped mouth forming the words "90 laps". Her thoughts drifted to other things from the last time she'd seen him: fighting him, stopping in front of the bath house, settling her fingertips against his surprisingly soft lips to shush him while she healed the shallow scars on his palms. The feel of her healing chakra as she'd watched his lids fall heavy over his sweet dark eyes. She felt warmth brewing in her chest again. Oh hell.

Sakura closed the book firmly, resolved to seek out Ino. She'd missed home after all; it would be a waste not to see the people who made her feel welcome.

A waste, her thoughts echoed. She grabbed her clothes and pulled them on briskly, stomping downstairs in a frenzy to find Ino.

It wasn't hard. Ino pounced on Sakura the minute she reached the market street. The blonde grabbed her and immediately wanted to hear all about the mission. Sakura glossed over the basics and moved on to amusing anecdotes. It was how they usually relayed mission: 'went to such a country on this kind of mission. Oh, and there was this tavern brawl that Naruto got caught up in; let me tell you all about it!' However, it didn't take Ino long to redirect towards more current gossip.

"You heard about Gaara-sama, right?" Ino said with her voice off handedly light as they walked through a colorful display of ribbons and fabric. Sakura had just paused, letting her fingers linger over a cherry blossom patterned cotton. The newly earned coin from her mission burned in her pocket. She started.

"Gaara-sama?" She asked Ino, emphasizing the suffix, an eyebrow raised. Ino shoved her nose in the air.

"Well yes, he is the Kazekage now. We're all gonna have to learn to call him that, except for Lee-kun and Naruto-kun. They can probably get away with addressing him more familiarly, that is, if he ever comes back here." Ino laughed, "Yet with this new alliance, I'm sure we'll get to go to Suna sometime. The next Chunin Exam will be held there in a few months you know." Ino sighed. They walked away from the fabric and into a produce stall. "Tsunade-sama sent an ambassador, probably some diplomat civilian with a ninja guard, to be witnesses and represent Konoha. That's rare, even among countries with strong alliances. Wouldn't it be cool to see the Kazekage confirmed?" Sakura snorted none too delicately. Ino handled a plum.

"I'm sure it's the same as the Hokage's confirmation and we were here for that." The scorn in her voice was unmistakable. Ino rounded on her, hissing under her breath, the fruit in her hand strained under the pressure.

"Sakura-chan! This is history in the making! Tsunade-sama is wonderful and all, but Gaara-sama is going to be the youngest Kage ever, not to mention among the most powerful! Shikamaru-kun told me about his…" Her voice petered out. None of them quite knew what to call the creature Gaara carried. Her teammates had referred to it as 'Shukaku' and Sakura had come to think of it in those terms. She sighed. Ino now had a armful of fruit and was moving toward the stall owner.

"I suppose you're right. It will be eventful, but at least we'll get to ask Lee-san about it when he comes back." Ino gasped, turning quickly to read Sakura's expression. A plum got loose and tumbled to the ground, its skin thankfully firm enough to hold it together.

"Is that where Team Gai is? Suna?!" Sakura nodded leaning down and picking up the fruit. She deposited it back in Ino's grasp.

"Wow." The blonde breathed. She moved to the register. "They're the ambassadors? That's so cool! I can't wait to hear about it!" Ino paid briskly, talking all the while. As she put the bag of fruit over her elbow, she suddenly rounded on Sakura. "Wait a second, how did you know that Lee-kun's team went to Suna?" Sakura's brow furrowed and she shrugged.

"Shizune-sempai told me. I guess she just trusts me with sensitive information more than you." Sakura teased, elbowing her friend. They walked toward a stall with sweets and jams. Ino's lips skinned back as predicted, but Sakura was surprised to see it reform into a genuine smile rather than the bared scowl she had expected. Ino suddenly looked happy and not a little smug.

"What?" Sakura demanded. Ino ignored it with a shrug and walked into the stall, poking at jams and preserves. Sakura stomped around and planted herself next to the girl. "What is it Ino-pig?!" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"It's nothing Forehead, don't worry about it." She waved her hand dismissively. It was unlike Ino to either give up a chance to gossip or a chance to rub something in Sakura's face. She suspected that Ino was foregoing both at this moment. "Chouji-kun's birthday is next week and while I probably shouldn't get him food, I'm thinking something not barbeque might make a dent in those terrible eating habits of his." Ino's conversational tone was infuriating her, "Do you think he'll like strawberry or grape jelly better?" Ino asked, holding up the jars in question.

"Just tell me Ino-chan, or I'll make you sorry." Sakura ground out in a voice she usually reserved for telling Naruto off. Ino shook her head with an amused expression that she struggled to wipe away.

"Okay, okay. It's just…" She paused. Sakura could hear her brain grope for diplomatic words. When did Ino ever bother watching her mouth? It had to be serious. "Well, I don't think Shizune-sempai told you because you're more trustworthy than me. I think Shizune-sempai's just very observant and was acting on it." Sakura frowned.

"Ino-chan…" She warned. The kunoichi sighed. She replaced the grape jelly, holding the strawberry for purchase.

"Okay, I won't beat around the bush, but you asked for it. Shizune-sempai just realized that you've gone sweet on Lee-kun and was being nice telling you where he is." Ino moved to look at a selection of crackers, the expression on her face both flippant and smug. Sakura for her part was stunned into silence. Ino picked through the crackers. "Don't worry," She continued, "I'm pretty sure Lee-kun still hasn't realized it yet."

"I'm not." Sakura's mouth started working again and she countered forcefully, if belatedly. Ino just turned from the shelf and looked at her, her hands still among the crackers, the expression one of blatant disbelief.

"If you say so." Ino responded, her voice mild, but still skeptical.

"I haven't 'gone sweet' on Lee-san." Sakura persisted. Ino turned back to the crackers.

"Sure. Tell me that again when you believe it." Sakura snorted again, furious beyond words at Ino's self assurance. "Look," Ino stopped for a moment, turning to Sakura with an honest and open face, "If I wasn't sure before, I would be with how you're protesting. But it's all over you. I mean, you won't call him –kun first of all. I bet you're waiting for him to ask you again." She began ticking off on her fingers, "You go running with him and Gai-sensei in the mornings and like it; you heal him all the time, even when you're too busy – remember when he came in and we were in the middle of the chunin with the foot lacerations? You dropped everything and had me finish so you could heal the hairline fractures in Lee-kun arm. You even light up at the sound of his name, you know."

Sakura turned away from Ino, shaking her head in a denial that felt hollow.

"It's okay to move on from Sasuke-kun. I'm actually happy for you, Sakura-chan. You could do worse than liking a nice guy like Lee-kun. You could have gone for another cool loner like Neji-san. Lee-kun will be good to you." Sakura mutely shook her head.

"Sakura-chan?" Ino had put her purchases down and had an arm around her friend.

"I don't know," she whispered, "I haven't finished figuring it out myself yet, but," Sakura's mouth quivered and she tried to restrain it, "but… but…" Sakura took a deep breath and Ino gave her a comforting squeeze. "I like running with him and he makes me laugh. I have fun with him. He makes me feel good about myself and I like that. I want someone who makes me feel grown up. I'm tired of being put down. I don't even mind when he gets all loud and energetic. It's kinda cute, I think." She hesitated, but she could sense Ino nodding supportively.

"I know what you mean. It is actually kinda cute how worked up he gets; not always, but sometimes." Sakura grinned, relief washing through her system.

"And he had to strip off that terrible green suit for me once." Feeling braver and more composed, she turned to look at Ino, whose eyes glowed.

"Yeah?' She asked excitedly. Sakura laughed.

"He's gorgeous. Except for the eyebrows. And the hair. And the eyelashes. God! He's such a dork!" Sakura gather her head in her hands and shook. "I can't like someone so dorky!" Sakura her Ino swallow a giggle.

"Sakura, you can't choose who you like. Not really. Besides, that stuff is all surface. You like the person he is beneath that, right?" She waited the few crucial seconds for Sakura to nod.

"Well you better make a move to secure him now that you've told me he's hot under that suit! Because if you don't when he gets back; I will!"

"Ino-chan!" Sakura wailed in mortification .The blonde laughed.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Ino gathered up her items for purchase and moved to pay for them. "Besides, everyone knows he's been gone on you forever. I wouldn't stand a chance and I won't be bothered with rejection. I pick my battles more carefully than that."

They left the stall and started to walk towards the flower shop.

"Ino-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you." Ino looked to her with a glowing smile. Sakura smiled back, feeling lighter than she had in three weeks. Ino's smile turned sly.

"No problem, Sakura-chan, just do me a favor and get Lee-kun to pluck those eyebrows, okay?"

"Ino-chan!"


	16. Return

_Breaking and Mending_

_Return_

_By Michaela Will_

Sakura stood leaning against the rails of the bridge just outside the Western gate of Konoha. Her arms and hands draped all the way down over the railing creating an uncomfortable-looking arch to her back; her chin against the wood ledge and her head listing gently against her arm.

From his vantage he could see her drowsy lids drooping over eyes that gazed lazily along the river, frowning unhappily at the dragonflies populating the dusk air. The position could not have been as awkward as it looked since she remained eerily still. Sakura was not made for sitting still. Yet, it was a position of childish lethargy. She stood there and he watched her for a quiet moment, recognizing all over again her beauty. She radiated beauty in her melancholy, her eyes fixed across the horizon toward the setting sun.

West: towards Suna. The juxtaposition made his heart leap stupidly.

"I was hoping I could find you tonight, Sakura-san." At his words her head rose off the wood and turned. Her green eyes fixed on him. Lee loved that shade of green and found he was swallowing tightly. It felt an eon since that day she fixed his palms. It had only been a month. Okay… 27 days.

Something in her changed. Her eyes lit with warmth and she skittered away from her perch.

"Lee-san!" Sakura hurried forward, and Lee imaged her ready to fling herself into him for a hug. A few steps away she slowed down, her movement halting in oddly arrhythmic steps. Her fingers knit together and she appeared awkward and sheepish, completely the opposite of just a moment ago. He smiled. It must have been his imagination. Her head dropped a bit and in response he cocked his head to the side. None of her behaviors were really like Sakura. Was she also just returned from her mission and tired?

"Sakura-san?" Her eyes moved around at his foot-level, but quickly drew up to his face.

"I'm sorry Lee-san." She smiled reassuringly, "But, you're back! I just didn't expect to see you again so soon. They told me you were on a mission." Lee struggled vainly to keep breathing evenly. Had she asked about him, was she really excited to see him? Now he saw her throat work. "I missed you." She admitted her voice mumbling and her face flushed.

Lee could not help but grin: his angel had missed him.

"We left almost a week ago. You could not have been waiting here that long." His voice was gentle, but Lee felt every callousness that could be read into those words. His mouth, wisely or unwisely, at that moment would not form the words that would shape a correct response, a real response. Instead they chose that awful thing to say. He braced for her to slug him; knowing that such a line deserved such a response. Instead, Lee watched the shyness dripping off Sakura and her head drop again. The pause continued and then the words he really meant were allowable. "I'm sorry Sakura-san. I only meant until I had a mission I was nearly inconsolable for the loss of my personal sun, dear Sakura-san. Less than a week here in Konoha without me could not have been so disheartening!" A mild version of his rapturous tones returned. Sakura giggled. He grinned, spurned on to greater enthusiasm,

"But Oh! For three lonely weeks I had no Sakura-san to tend me! For shame! I asked Tsunade-sama to heal me, but it was not your gentle touch. It would be bliss, Sakura-san, if your beautiful hands were the only ones that ever again heal this awful, scarred flesh!" He threw his arms in large gyrating motions away from his body.

The giggling stopped abruptly. Sakura's happiness melted instantly and Lee became suddenly fearful, replaying his words for his error. What had he said to bring such a sober expression? His hands hung in the air, his body tensing. Would she hit him now? For his callousness earlier he would take the hit from her or do one thousand crunches.

"Don't say that Lee-san." Her softly serious voice rung with a tone she had never used with him before. He tried to remember this tone, if there was any precedent, but his mind could not find any as she stepped forward, the moment of silliness instantly forgotten. Sakura took his hand and stroked it and Lee suppressed a shiver of delight. "Don't say that you're awful or scarred. It's not true." She looked up at him, her voice a whisper, "It's not true."

Lee's eyes popped. The expression on Sakura's face was NOT a look she had ever leveled in his direction before. His mind stalled momentarily, only to kick back just in time to register the fist coming for his chest. In a movement of pure muscle memory, Lee shifted left and the blow glanced, but still sent him flying and he landed in a heap, sprawled over the ground ten feet away and off the bridge.

"AND IF YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN I'LL MAKE IT SO IBIKI-SAN HAS LESS SCARS THAN YOU!!" She hollered and then stood fuming, fists thrown down to her sides. Lee pulled his knee out of his armpit and climbed back to his feet. He nodded. He had moved. One thousand crunches it was.

"Yes Sakura-san. I will not say such things again if it upsets you." Sakura's mouth remained tightly pursed in an angry line. Lee decided to change the subject. "Are you hungry, Sakura-san? It is dinnertime and I have been traveling all day so I would like to eat very much." The look gentled.

"Yes." She smiled, "I would like that." Lee turned toward the village and Sakura skipped forward a few steps to meet him.

"Good! I am in great need of food to rejuvenate my youthful spirit! Gai-sensei said that we all depleted our energy performing such an honorable task and that we should all eat and rest up tonight so that we are prepared to begin training in earnest tomorrow!" His eyes glowed as dark embers and he raised a fist to meet the challenge. He knew that his energy on the trip convinced Gai that he was ready to move up another rung in his training. "Tomorrow I will do the full 100 laps of Konoha to improve my strength! Will you be ready to keep up Sakura-san?"

"Yup!" Sakura laughed and nodded. They fell into step with each other, crossing the gateway and returning to their home. Her laughing died down, but Lee still saw it in her eyes as she looked to him.

"I got something for you." She spoke evenly with a smile and that laughter still sparkling in her eyes as they turned the corner onto the market street. Lee's heart skipped a beat. His face must have expressed his shock because she giggled, the sound of delicate bells ringing in his ears. She reddened and continued speaking a little quicker suddenly, "I mean, while I was on my mission. I just, well, I saw it and I thought you'd like it, but you don't have to! If you don't its okay, it's just something small!" Sakura abruptly stopped talking and Lee decided to stop nodding along.

"If it is a gift from Sakura-san, then I will love it." Lee spoke, believing entirely every word.

Sakura got her bearings and leaned over to grasp his hand. "Come on, I'll give it to you at dinner."

She held his hand as she weaved through the evening crowd of civilian shoppers. Lee held on for dear life, surely he was dreaming. Yet her callused, firm hand did not release. In a rare moment of indulgence, Lee allowed his thumb to slide across the inside of her soft wrist. He set his mouth in a firm, serious line. No indulgence. He must be more vigilant to control his emotions. It was not appropriate for him to attempt to be romantic.

Still, he knew he would probably cry as he was moved to near tears at the thought of a gift from his beloved Sakura. He wondered again, if she knew what this action was telling him. Still, even if she hinted in her body language at affection, he must hold himself only to friendly behavior. Anything else might be offputting and he prefferred Sakura's affection to her avoidance. His heart dropped a little. He must hold himself to friendly behavoir, even if his heart yearned for more. Suddenly, Lee's face burned in shame. Sakura stopped outside a Western-style café.

"Is here okay? Lee-san!? What…" The girl stumbled for words as she noted the intensely dejected expression on Lee's face.

"I am sorry, Sakura-san, but I did not bring you anything from Suna. I…" He swallowed hard and hung his head to hide the tears in his eyes, "I regretfully cannot accept your gift since I have none to give to you. Please forgive my negligence!" He bowed formally.

"Oh Lee, don't be silly." Lee's head popped up, eyes wide, had she…? "It was a surprise; I don't expect anything in return." She smiled: sweetly, genuinely, happily indulgent of his foibles. Lee was still startled. She must not have noticed what she said. "Tell you what: how about you cover dinner and that can be your gift to me." There was a conspiratorial look on her face as she gave him a stage wink. They both knew he would have paid anyway. But she definitely did NOT know what she had said. He swallowed and spoke carefully.

"All right, I will agree. But! If you do not enjoy every bite, if you frown even once during dinner then I shall never go on another mission without bringing you back a gift!" Sakura's eyes went wide.

"For the next year." She tacked on hastily. Lee put a finger to his mouth, miming the action of thought. It did not matter if he lost this self-imposed rule. He would bring her back a gift from every mission from here on out, but if it made her feel better…

"All right. If you do not enjoy dinner or frown then for the next year I will always bring you back a gift from my missions." Sakura stuck out her hand, picky extended.

"Deal." Lee grinned.

"Deal." They linked pinkies and shook.

Satisfied, Sakura grinned and lead the way into the café. Dazed by the events thus far, Lee followed. As they sat down and Sakura thanked the server, Lee momentarily lapsed into his own thoughts. It was all completely unlike Sakura, for her to settle into the chair across from him, to smile at him like this, for her to have missed him. It had been a month and while Lee had thought of Sakura everyday, he had not anticipated her marked glee at his return.

He put the odd thoughts aside, disregarding them as unimportant. She wanted to spend her time with him; that was all that mattered. He watched delighted by her expression as she furrowed her brow over the short menu of sandwiches, salads and other such finger food. Her soft mouth traced the names of the dishes and Lee watched in rapt fascination, partly colored by his own travel exhaustion.

In marked contrast to the tiring trip home, Lee's excitement on the trip to Suna was so extreme that the trek had not cost him any reserves. He proceeded to stay up late into the nights practicing, so he could spend every possible hour of daylight seeing the Suna village with Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. They only had one day to themselves before the induction and the chosen (and nervous) Kazekage made sure they were all busy by attentively acting as their personal guide. He showed great interest in escorting his Konoha guests around. Lee caught an offhand comment from Temari that suggested Gaara's intentions to act as a good host were new and quite heartfelt. It meant that he and Gai went to great lengths to make Gaara feel appreciated.

Afterwards, Tenten and Neji had slept like the dead, but Lee was too energized to be able to sleep. That night Lee ended up out on a training field by himself until Kankuro, restless on his brother's behalf, also showed up. They sparred a little and then fell to discussing mutual worries regarding their villages, as much as they could without giving away home-grown secrets.

Lee was certain Kankuro chalked the whole thing up to a certain sleepless 3am madness. Lee agreed, but was happy to find he had made another friend in Suna. Kankuro had shook his hand very warmly upon their departure and told them how happy he would be to see all of them back. While Lee felt the sentiment was mostly based on their late-night conversation, but he also noticed Kankuro's more-than-friendly gaze on Tenten. That would have to be looked to, should they all go back anytime soon.

"Lee-san?" Lee jerked his head, the soft smile of his face fleeing as he quickly reacquainted himself with his surroundings. Sakura and the waitress were looking to him expectantly.

"Oh, I'll have the same." He grinned at them, unconcerned about the food. The girl nodded and moved away from them briskly, but Sakura was less convinced. She was frowning.

"Are you okay, Lee-san? The trip didn't wear you out too much? Maybe eating out was a bad idea, should I just take you home?" Lee laughed, waving his hand at the cute furrows in Sakura's brow.

"That is silly, Sakura-san. I promise I am fine. Suna was an adventure and yet I am happy to be back. Please forgive my rudeness, but I was just remembering something I wanted to ask you." Sakura's head tipped to the side as she smiled. She had not smiled this warmly, this happily in a long time. The mission had definitely been good for her. The bags were gone and she looked to be her right weight again.

"Oh?" She asked. Lee swallowed and nodded. As Lee searched for the right words to phrase his request Sakura propped up her elbows and rest her chin on her knit-together fingers

"Yes, I wanted to know…" He took a deep breath to steady himself under Sakura's very attentive gaze. "I would like it very much if you would please call me Lee-kun." He paused, "If it would not be too much trouble. A-after running together so often I feel silly having you call me –san. No one else I see so regularly calls me –san." He began his explanation. He stopped for a moment to decide if she required further reasoning. She was nodding and seemed unperturbed by the suggestion.

"Sure, Lee-kun." He basked in the phrase although Sakura used it carefully, tasting the sound of it. Lee broke into an all our grin.

"Ahh! Thank you my dear Sakura-san! It makes me so—" Lee was suddenly cut off from his exultations. Sakura had suddenly pulled herself up and leaned across the table, her hand over his mouth. Lee blinked hard. Why not just ask him to stop? Why did she want him to stop?

Why, and this was the part driving him slowly crazy, did he feel like she was trying to touch him? It was about the third time she chose to touch him needlessly tonight. He brought his eyes up to meet hers.

"Sakura-chan, please, Lee-kun. Sakura-chan." She released him and sat back down. The smile on her face, again, was a new expression for him. It was very smugly pleased.

"Sakura-chan." He echoed softly. "Sakura-chan," He spoke more boldly, but still savored the words, his pleasure dulling his alacrity for a display. "I am so very glad that you agreed. I very much appreciate it." He would have to tell Gai first thing in the morning, about his victory in his attempts to become closer to his Sakura and Gai would tearfully congratulate him. Still, he was still astonished by the ease of it, how natural it felt. She too, radiated newfound happiness.

"Of course, Lee-kun. I couldn't let you keep calling me Sakura-san anymore if I'm to address you more familiarly."

In the way of dining service, their food arrived just in time to cut Lee off from a round of enthusiastic flattery. Instead they both attacked their dinners, words unneeded and unwanted. After a bit of time passed they began to slow. Napkins removed from their laps, Sakura draped hers across her plate and Lee's put off to the side of his empty dish.

As Lee took the check from the waitress, Sakura's hands fingered her kunai case, nervously. Lee's sharp eyes caught the gesture. He ignored it in favor of working his money out for tip and the register. With a smile, he made his way to the checkout with the bill. He felt her follow him. She stood beside him while he cleared the bill and her right hand continued fingering her kunai case.

When he was done, he hoped her precedent would hold and keep her from killing him. He daringly flaunted his own rule on indulgence by reaching for and gently taking her hand, her right one, the one still absently touching the kunai case, and lead her into the darkened streets of Konoha. He excused the gesture as meant to stop her fidgeting. She did not deck him, but instead squeezed his hand.

* * *

_AN: What did Lee notice Sakura say that startled him? - I'll give you a hint if you didn't figure it out: I'm using a very tight handle on Japanese suffixes in my story. Dropping all suffixes is indicative of one of two things: extreme closeness or being very deliberately rude._

_Next chapter will pick up exactly where this one leaves off, so there is more to come!_


	17. The Night

_Breaking and Mending_

_The Night_

_By Michaela Will_

As Lee took the check from the waitress, Sakura's hands fingered her kunai case, nervously. Lee's sharp eyes caught the gesture. He ignored it in favor of working his money out for tip and the register. With a smile, he made his way to the checkout with the bill. He felt her follow him. She stood beside him while he cleared the bill and her right hand continued fingering her kunai case.

When he was done, he hoped her precedent would hold and keep her from killing him. He daringly flaunted his own rule on indulgence by reaching for and gently taking her hand, her right one, the one still absently touching the kunai case, and lead her into the darkened streets of Konoha. He excused the gesture as meant to stop her fidgeting. She did not deck him, but instead squeezed his hand.

"Now my dear angel Sakura-chan, it is time that I take you home." He smiled his best 'good guy' smile and gave her a thumbs up.

"Lee-kun, you don't have to do that." Sakura's protest was thin; there was no true emotion behind it, it was simply the words of a protest. Even Lee could hear that in her voice.

"But Sakura-chan, I do! I have promised to protect you and what if something should happen to you on the way home? I would be a poor shinobi, and an even sadder man, if I did not care for a young blossom like Sakura-chan's well being. You would not deny me the relief of knowing you are home safe, would you?" In a mock of that first day at the hospital, Lee fluttered his lashes at her and posed. At the well-used gesture Sakura burst into laughter.

"Alright, alright. You win. You may escort me home, my noble Green Beast." Sakura laughed and pulled herself closer to him, threading her arm through his. Lee held his elbow out for her and whisked her through the streets, his blood thrumming hotly in his ears at the bell-like quality of Sakura's happy, uninhibited laughter. The smooth warmth of her skin pressed gently against his arm. She had called him noble; she had called him hers. Flirting, his mind supplied belatedly. Sakura was actively, possessively, flirting with him. Did she know? The blood tore hotly through his veins all over again.

It was not a long walk, but it was quiet. Night insects chirped from the undergrowth and Lee managed to sneak a peak at the lovely girl on his arm. Sakura looked flushed he noted as they walked under the light from an apartment window. She listed into his arm, her pink head all but inches from his shoulder. His loose hand twitched as his mind wandered over her hair. He wanted to stop and run his fingers through her hair, comb it behind her ear and touch her flushed cheek. With sheer force of will, Lee made sure his pace did not falter. He could feel the sweat on his brow beading up and his breath burned hot under his skin. Lee made his gaze return to the street.

Shortly, mere moments thereafter, he felt her gaze shift up to him from the road. Lee strictly kept his own vision firmly planted in front of them. In his peripheral vision he felt her watch him before tipping her head back to look up.

"No moon." She spoke softly. Lee looked to Sakura's palely lit face and then up to the sky. The eaves of the nearby dark buildings of Konoha obscured only the edges of the sky, the netting of tree branches on the southern edge only creating a fabric pattern of dark gray-blue and true black, broken by tiny pricks of starlight. The moon was indeed missing and in its stead the stars glistened more brightly. "It's lovely." She sighed. They stopped walking, both their heads tilted skyward. He nodded his agreement, manfully resisting the urge to slide his arm around her back and tuck her more securely against his side. Instead he raised his free arm and pointed.

"There is Cynus, the Swan."

"Eh?" Lee looked down on Sakura's face, which suddenly brightened. "Oh! The constellation! Where?" She looked up. He pointed high in the sky.

"It is six stars shaped like a cross. There, right overhead. The bright star is the tail. Then there is the body and a star for each wing. The last two stars shape the neck." Sakura leaned into his side, trying vainly to put her head behind his fingers.

"I don't know where I'm looking." She gave a helpless little laugh.

"You will know it forever once you have seen it." Lee promised, shifting his hand further over and turning his body as much as he dared. Sakura kept looking through his fingers, her eyes narrowed and hands loosely holding his other arm. She shook her head.

"Not yet. Are you sure I'll see it."

"You will. It is there." After a moment Sakura shook her head again and shrugged, her grip on his arm shifting back to the earlier linking of elbows and she shifted her weight, starting to pull his arm forward. Her head was down from the sky and aimed at the road ahead.

"Let's just…"

She didn't finish because Lee, without thought, pulled his elbow away from her. In her moment of silence he reached around and grasped her other arm, gently pulling her to stand in front of him. He felt her breath shoot out as he held her warm, bare arms. With his free hand he took hers, bent at the knees slightly and with his head at her shoulder led her hand to trace the stars of the swan.

"The bright star is the tail, then the body, the wings… and the neck." Sakura's previously shallow breath came out as an awed sigh. She saw it. He let their hands drop slowly. Stunned by his own presumption, Lee's breath pulled limply from his burning lungs. Carefully, he stepped back. "I-I am sorry, Sakura-chan. I wanted you to see it." She did not look at him yet, still dazzled by the sky.

"It's beautiful, Lee-kun. Thank you." She turned and smiled at him over her shoulder. His shallow breath was lost in the face of her brilliant smile. He struggled to find any breath at all. He was certain the smile on his face was gawky and impish, not the smooth, suave gesture it should have been. This would be the moment to say something impressive, instead…

"Y-you are welcome, Sakura-sa" He flushed hotter under her fiery glare, "Er, Sakura-chan." Her visage returned instantaneously to the stunning beauty of her happiness. She reached for and took his arm again, and Lee was acutely aware that he no longer was commanding the situation.

Somehow, Lee was no longer sure how, they made it to the Haruno's front step. Lee suddenly felt awkward; he no longer knew what to say or do. Sakura stepped up on the front stoop and then turned to look when he did not follow. As Sakura released his arm, turning back to face him, he slid back a step and bowed to her.

"Thank you for letting me walk you home." He straightened up to find Sakura fingering the kunai case again. She stepped forward, a quick slip down the step, and hugged him.

"Thank you, Lee-kun, for bringing me home."

The genuine tone of her voice smothered him into bliss. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pressed her body to him briefly. Lee did not even have enough time to bring his arms up to hold her before she was back a few steps and out of his grasp. He blinked hard. Her fingers had flown back to that distracting kunai case and finally committed to action. She was holding out a small package wrapped in green decorative paper out to him with both hands.

"This is for you Lee-kun. Please accept it." Sakura smiled brightly as Lee took the small package from her. He paused for a moment, looking from the package to the girl. He silently admired the paper before releasing the closure and pulling out the object. It was small and hard with an embroidered fabric shell. The protective charm had a gold loop of thread for hanging and the tag shaped body was embroidered with gold on green fabric.

"The shrines in the village I went to had these and, well, I thought you might like it and even if it's not a useful gift." Sakura spoke quickly, anxiousness coloring her voice as she explained, "I don't know if you believe in protective charms but I thought you might at least appreciate the thought. I'm sorry if it's—"

Sakura was cut off from her babbling as Lee lunged forward and wrapped her in a hug of his own devising. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his palms to the small of her back, bringing her to him in a delicate embrace with the charm clutched in one hand. After a moment Sakura reflexively pulled her arms free of her chest and draped them around his neck.

"Thank you Sakura-chan," His voice sounded hoarse to his ears as he swallowed his tears, determined not to cry despite the watery buildup in his eyes, "I like it very much and I do believe in protective charms." He pulled back and so did she. Lee's heart beat triple time, echoing in his ears and threatening to rip out of his skin. He leaned forward to hug her close again, and stopped: Sakura had arched her neck to the same side as him. He paused.

Their faces were tilted in such a way as their lips lined up with only a little air between them. The moment, the involuntary insistence to just kiss her, hung in the air between them, the few inches between their mouths unchanged. Lee shifted to the other side to hug her, and Sakura shifted as well. His mind wildly encouraged to lean forward and close the gap to her mouth. Lee's lips itched to slide forward and find out if hers were as soft as they looked. Violent heat rushed through him and he flushed, noting the color in her cheeks as well. He could feel her breath: her nervous, elated half laughter teasing his senses. He realized, he was close enough to kiss her and she had not drove him away. In fact, the attracting connection on the air was so intense, Lee could not fathom any way that Sakura could possibly miss the intensity of this moment: the promise of a kiss.

Lee released her and stepped back.

"I…I…" He began, unable to bring his eyes back to meet hers. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan. I apologize."

"For what?" Lee's gaze popped up to Sakura. She was panting for breath, an intensely disappointed and angry frown on her face. Lee was puzzled. No, puzzled did not cover it. Was it possible she was angry that he stopped? He thought she wanted Sasuke to be her first kiss. He would not take that from her unwillingly, not him. It was not honorable to steal such a thing from her, no matter how much he loved her. And he wanted her to love him as well, freely and willingly, without some lingering wish that he were another dark-eyed Konoha nin.

He reminded himself of the first kiss of his dreams: the necessary confrontation with Sasuke would come first. She could not close off that past until he returned. There was no chance of his future with Sakura until that day came, even if that day was a gamble. He could not overreach himself now and loose that bright future!

"Lee-kun!? What are you sorry for?!" Sakura glared at him with all her might, her hands were fisted on her hips: cute hands that belied the several tons of chakra-enhanced force behind them. Lee bit back a whimper. It escaped anyways.

"I… you…"

"Yes, go on." Her voice threatened bodily violence.

"Sasuke-kun…" The name burst from him in a gnarled, strangled squeak. Sakura snorted and rolled eyes.

"He's not here."

"Yes, but… you… him…" His voice cracked and thoughts jerked on a yo-yo string up and down through his throat. Lee worked to breathe regularly.

"I don't like Sasuke-kun anymore, Lee-kun." Her eyes were lowered so he could only see her lids and lashes. Her foot scuffled across the ground. She traced a heart in the dust with the toe of her sandal. "I think… I like someone else now." She raised her eyes to him and Lee looked into green pools of heat and glow that bespoke of a shyness and forwardness all at once. It was the exact look that she used to reserve for Sasuke alone and it destroyed all of Lee's preconceived notions about how girls fell in and out of love.

The hiccupping breathing left him entirely and Lee felt light headed. His eyes popped wide, probably comically. He leaned forward, holding his chest as he struggled to keep his hold on consciousness. Suddenly Sakura stood right next to him, rubbing his back.

"Breathe, Lee-kun, breathe." Lee focused on breathing, following his darling Sakura's suggestion. Each breath was shallower than he would have liked. He'd never, in any of his wildest daydreams, imagined this… Or so soon. He had anticipated, planned to take years to win Sakura over. He looked up to her green eyes, to no change. They still sparkled with affection freely given and her cheeks pinked prettily under his inspection.

Goodbye romantic comedy. Still, Lee was unable to squash the urge to look around them. Make sure. Maybe Sasuke had reappeared in his moment of light headedness. No, there was no one else and as he warily checked the shadowed corners of the street Sakura giggled. He pulled himself back upright and turned to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan…" He spoke softly, afraid to scare her away if he spoke any louder. She nodded, encouraging him. He grinned so hard it hurt: at her blushes, at the adoration in her eyes, at her strong stance before him; unafraid and unrepentant. She was confident in her choice; in choosing him. Then so was he.

He stepped forward and Sakura allowed him to draw her back into his arms. "Sakura-chan." It was but a breath and they were back to that spot in time: her arms around his neck, his around her waist and this time when their mouths lined up Lee did not hesitate. He kissed her with all the thoroughness he used in every other part of his life; gently and carefully he poured his every daydream into her waiting lips. He felt her knees weakened beneath her, her satisfied sigh whispered across his lips, and Lee smiled happily into their kiss to know it.

* * *

_AN: grins I plan one more chapter to wrap things a little (haven't started, but I have the plan), but I know this is what you've been waiting for. I'd appreciate any comments. Is too much wishful fanfiction, or was it realistic enough for believability? Is Sakura OOC? Lee? Thank you again for the encouragement. I've greatly enjoyed writing this fic, thanks in large part to the comments! -_


	18. Mending

_Breaking and Mending_

_Mending_

_By Michaela Will_

**One Month Later…**

She felt melancholy and tired in this place. Not sleepy tired, but weary-of-life tired. The broken bits of furniture had neither function and nor even real form at this point. The air hung heavy of dust and age. Despite the longing to be rid of the dismal scene of broken dreams, she couldn't bring herself to throw out what belonged to another. In a sad way, it was all that was left to him of his family, or would be when he finished what he'd set out to do. No wonder he was angry and sullen all the time, with nothing but the shadows of once-greatness torn to rubble to live by: a great house fallen into disrepair and hidden in this dusty and dank smelling room.

"Sakura-chan! Hurry up! You better not be trying to shirk helping us now!" A shrill voice hollered across the property. Sakura flushed with anger momentarily, but then smiled and laughed and the sound echoed hollowly into the room. Her mood lifted. She no longer was concerned with these shadows. It sucked they existed, but…

She lightly tossed the pieces of broken chair into the room and shut the door.

"Come-ing!" She called back at a sing-song, starting to trek across the courtyard. Ino stood at the open door of the other building, hands on her hips like an angry mother hen. Instead of her usual attire she wore a t-shirt over a pair of sweats. Sakura noted the sleeves hung to her elbows, making the shirt much too large to belong to her. Perhaps it was her dad's. Ino wriggled uncomfortably in the clothes.

"First the roof, now the bathroom tiling, I hate to think what Tsunade-sama will find to fix when she finally comes to take a look at this place." Sakura laughed at Ino's irritation.

"Tsunade-shishou will be happy with whatever is done. I mean, I don't think she's interested in making more work for herself." Ino mouth worked wryly, seeing the truth in Sakura's words.

"Fine then," She responded, turning to go inside, "But that boy of yours better not have any more home improvement ideas. I'm only going to do this cement and grout thing once!" Sakura gamely followed Ino into the rooms. Chouji and Lee were mixing up wet ingredients for relaying tile. Their heads hung over the buckets in matched expressions of studious contemplation and held Lee a bag of dry sand in hand. Chouji lifted the mix and the pair scowled, Lee's mouth formed a bow and Chouji's in a thoughtful frown as they conferred over the best way to get the cement to thicken.

On her entrance Lee glanced at Chouji briefly before putting down the bag, taking a few large steps, and whisking Sakura off her feet. He spun her around, before putting her back on her feet with a flourish. Sakura laughed in delighted embarrassment as his kissed her cheek, a compromised they had established early on. It was clear in his eyes that if allowed his show of affection would be more impressive.

"Lee-kun! Stop that! I was only gone a little while." Lee still kept his arms around her while she playfully smacked his arm. Lee frowned seriously.

"But Sakura-chan, I have not been able to spend time with you all morning! I must lavish my next week's worth of attention on you today, because you will be leaving on your mission with Kakashi-sensei tomorrow! I must make sure Sakura-chan feels so well loved today that it will last all week! I wish Tsunade-sama would have let Team Gai go as well."

Sakura smiled, indulgent of Lee's serious, near petulant scowl. He had argued with Tsunade dramatically that Team Gai would be an asset to the assassination mission Kakashi was leading. Unfortunately for him, it was all too apparent his ulterior motive. Sakura was chagrined to know that until Lee's exuberance calmed enough to convince Tsunade he would focus on the mission before her safety, they would not be scheduled any missions together. She knew that basically meant never, but the times they were both in Konoha more than made up for it.

"Well I'm done with the livable rooms, so I can help with this for the rest of the afternoon." Sakura gently wiggled out of Lee's hug, but took his hand in hers as she turned to Ino and Chouji. "Are Shikamaru-kun and his dad still working on the roof?"

"They will probably be up there all day," Chouji responded, a pleased smile on his face, "And even if they finish earlier than that they'll stare at the clouds for a while before coming inside. The mortar's mixed." Chouji held up the mortar to show the consistency now looked correct. Lee nodded briskly.

"Then we should get started. I promised Ino-chan we would finish this today and I would not ask her to help should we tile again." He told Sakura, letting go of her hand, the reluctance etched in his face.

"Okay, I'll help too. Just show me what I need to do."

Lee began his explanation on how to spread the mortar and apply the tiles. Sakura nodded along with the instructions. A month ago Sakura had begged off a lunch date in order to fulfill her ritualistic cleaning at Naruto and Sasuke's homes, only to be met with immediate apologies. He had, Lee explained, in his joy of her company completely forgotten it would be the first of the month and thus her usual habit would fill her day.

"_Sakura-chan! Now that the matter has been brought up, I must beg your forgiveness!" Lee dropped to his knees in the middle of the market street. Sakura had been stunned, and unable to react. There were suddenly tears standing in Lee's eyes._

"_I have deceived you, to my shame! I meant you no harm, dearest Sakura-chan, but in my hopes to better your daily activities I was forced to lie to you. I do not regret my actions, but I greatly regret the necessity of my deception. It was at my request that Tsunade-sama gave Team Asuma the mission to help you clean Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun's homes." He paused, dropping kisses on her wrists. Sakura stared, her head slowly clearing from the shock. Lee continued, "I did not like lying to you, my sweet, darling, angel Sakura-chan," Each endearment was punctuated by another kiss on her hands, "I decided that it would be the only way to get you to accept help and Tsunade-sama was willing to assist me. I apologize, with most heartfelt sincerity, my angel, for my deception. It was never my intent to see you hurt in this, but to me it was such woe to read Shikamaru-kun's report. I most terribly regret being unable to help you myself, my darling, my sweet Sakura-chan!"_

_Lee's voice was rising to a fevered pitch as he kissed and shook her hands, begging Sakura with his eyes for any reaction. Sakura, for her part, suddenly became aware again that she was standing in the street. Her face began burning red as people, civilians, even Anko, stopped to stare. Sakura pulled ineffectually at Lee's hands. His legs remained limp on the ground as he continued to beg her forgiveness. She had laughed, nervously._

"_Okay, okay! Lee!" She hissed lowly, "Lee-kun, I forgive you! Okay, I forgive you!" She spontaneously began laughing; Lee looked up into her face as her features shifted from anxious to joyful. "I forgive you, Lee-kun, so you can get up now, please! Everyone's staring." Her voice was no longer a hissing whisper. Lee has grinned maniacally and pulled her down into his lap._

"_Thank you Sakura-chan." He rained little kisses on her face as he held her tightly, but gently. "Thank you my dear Sakura-chan." Sakura squirmed and wiggled, giggling in delight for a few moments and Lee continued his ministrations. Out of the corner of her eye she had spotted Shizune walking by; the older woman only had shook her head with a bright, approving smile before turning away. Anko only rolled her eyes before growling at the unsuspecting bystanders and scaring a good number away from the young couple. Sakura smiled into Lee's gentle kisses and returned her focus to him alone._

Sakura's expression warmed as she returned her attention to Lee's explanation. After his apology Sakura asked him if he would like to help with the cleaning from now on, and he'd agreed to do so with hearty enthusiasm. His first tour of duty resulted in his determination that the bathrooms needed retiling. Considering that Sasuke had apparently used them for kunai target practice, chipping some tiles beyond recognition, it was agreed to be a necessary project. Lee made it his personal project, much as Shikamaru had taken responsibility for the roof. Tsunade was taking on financial responsibility for the bulk of the repairs from this point forward, having accepted Team Asuma's proposal that the Konoha council should claim the land for at least the time being. The codes stipulated a number of conditions that Sasuke could fulfill should he ever want the property back.

Chouji asked Ino to help him lay tiles as he spread the cement at one end. Lee took the remaining bucket in one hand and Sakura's hand with the other. They moved to the other end of the bathroom to lay tiles, insults and commentary occasionally flying between the two sides. With a sigh after about a half hour, Ino took off her sandal and hurled it at the other pair.

"Ouch! Ino-pig!? What the hell was that for!?"

"Forehead!? I thought you guys were going to work over there. If I'd known you'd spend the time staring at your boyfriend's admittedly toned ass, I would have made you work with Chouji-kun." Ino shot across the room, a touch of smugness in her voice.

"Ino-chan!" Sakura wailed, mortified as Lee looked up from the mortar cement curiously, "I was NOT staring! Besides, if you have time to watch me then doesn't that mean you're not working either?" Sakura pointed out, just as smugly, for about twenty seconds the girls exchanged heated, glances. Sparks flew before Ino sniffed dramatically and turned back to her tiling. Sakura turned back to the tiling to find Lee watching her seriously, but warmly.

"Sakura-chan… What Ino-chan said…" Sakura blushed.

"Of course not." She huffed, until she noted Lee's face fall.

"Oh." Lee spoke softly, spreading the cement for the next tile. The monosyllabic answer spoke volumes. Sakura leaned over to put the tile in place and then put her hand on Lee's wrist, stopping him from spreading the next section. His head was dropped focusing on the mixture. On rare occasion Sakura stumbled into Lee's 'insecure zones' as she thought of them. This, Lee's appearance, was one that they hadn't talked about much. Considering how impressionable Lee was regarding his appearance (one look at the Rock family photo album had shown Sakura how mutable his appearance had been until Gai came along) it wasn't surprising that he was a little insecure, even if he didn't change the eyebrows in response to all the teasing.

"Lee-kun, that's not it. I… I…" She sighed, "Okay, I was staring. Ino-chan caught me." Lee's brows shot up puzzled.

"But why would Sakura-chan lie about it? I do not mind if you like to look at me. I like to look at you." Sakura's mouth twitched as she tried not to laugh and then went serious at Lee's next soft comment: "I am glad to hear that Sakura-chan likes the way I look now."

"Lee-kun! It's embarrassing to be caught at it. Of course I like how you look; why would you think otherwise?" Sakura and Lee knelt on the floor, hands touching over their tiling supplies.

"Because Sakura-chan said I was 'too unique' when we first met. Does Sakura-chan not remember?" Sakura stared at him for a moment and then laughed softly. They were keeping their voices low so as not to draw Ino's wrath any further.

"I'm sorry I said that Lee-kun. I do remember it. But…" She paused, desperately hunting for the right words to express her change of heart. "But, I guess all I can say is that I'm a different person now then I was then, and now I think you're very attractive. And sweet and kind and the most wonderful boyfriend I could ever ask for." Sakura took a breath and said what she been meaning to for a while. "I wouldn't want you to change anything unless you wanted to, even your eyebrows." She poked his forehead, right between said appendages with an impish smile. Lee face turned from serious to gleeful as leaned up to kiss her.

"Oy!" They both stopped. Ino was stand with her hand on her hip, waving a ceramic tile in their direction. Chouji knelt behind her with a pleased, indulgent smile on his face. He continued to spread mortar and tile himself even as Ino wound up with a tirade. "Knock it off you two! Uhh! We're never going to get this done today if you two don't stop flirting! You've got all night to be cutesy before Sakura-chan leaves in the morning. Please spare us poor single people your sickeningly overcute displays of affection!"

Lee and Sakura looked from each other, to Ino, as the blond huffed again and knelt back on the floor to continue tiling, Chouji speaking to her in a soft, soothing voice.

"We are sorry, Ino-chan." Ino looked up to Lee's serious expression as he continued. "You are right that we need to stop playing and get this job done. I will not touch Sakura-chan again until we are done tiling the room." Ino nodded her consent. Lee looked at Sakura. "Yosh! Let's get this done!" and with his typical enthusiasm Lee began to spread the cement at almost double the speed. Sakura had to struggle to keep up with her energetic partner.

They finally finished hours later. Shikamaru and his dad had climbed off the roof just in time to help spread the grout and edge and so the final part of the job took less time than before. They parted ways, Ino walking a short part of the distance back towards the Haruno's home with Sakura and Lee. She quickly headed off after giving Sakura a hug and a wink, leaving the young couple to themselves.

Lee immediately brought Sakura close when Ino turned the corner, tucking her within his arms to turn her and kiss her breathless. The warm kisses plied Sakura into a pile of mush and she wanted nothing more than to stay there all night. Sakura returned Lee's careful and thorough kisses with her own. The warmth running through her system made her knees weaken slightly and the buckling caused Lee to break the kiss.

"Now am I correct to believe that I have you all to myself tonight? I must have plenty of time to make sure Sakura-chan feels well-loved before leaving on her mission." Sakura, gasped for breath from her fluttering lungs.

"Lee-kun..." She whined playfully. Lee continued to stare her down. "Oh, yes! I'm not expected home tonight. I can pick up my bag and spend the whole night sleeping at your place, but Mom," Sakura flushed at the thought, "Mom wanted me to ask you to give her your word again." Lee grinned and nodded. He whisked Sakura off her feet and she yelped in surprise, turning towards the Haruno home.

The Haruno family had taken well to the young man and Sakura was thankful for that. Her mother was delighted with Lee's manners and his enthusiasm in taking care of her daughter. When he asked her two weeks prior, the night before he left on a long mission, if he could have Sakura spend the night with him, Sakura's mother had looked hesitant. Without missing a beat Lee had promised her, with his usual expressive display, that his darling Sakura-chan would only sleep next to him: on her own futon, fully clothed, and that he would not touch her anywhere that would be inappropriate in Konoha's town square. Aware of Lee's mission-like seriousness when it came to his word, Sakura's mother had immediately accepted the terms.

Sakura was probably the most chagrined by that turn of events; as it meant that she couldn't, under any circumstances, coerce Lee to more…favorable sleeping arrangements. Sakura was carried through town, a small smile playing on her lips that grew anytime Lee's eyes met hers. Her mind worked, trying to figure a way around the promise that Lee was about to make to her parents. She might only be 14, but kunoichi lived dangerously and while she wasn't certain of giving everything to Lee, yet, she knew she wanted more than a platonic futon next to him.

"Now," Lee spoke as he put Sakura down on her front step with a flourish "I will gladly give Haruno-san my word that I will not do anything to besmirch Sakura-chan's honor, while you go get your gear." Sakura stepped ahead and Lee waited, expecting her to unlock the door. Instead she turned to him.

"Lee-kun," she began, allowing a pleading note to enter her voice, "About your promise to my mom." Lee nodded; his focus entirely on her. She felt shy and started to blush, "Would you leave out the part about my own futon? I'd like," she swallowed hard, her fingers fiddling with the keys as Lee's round eyes turned to saucers, "I'd like to be closer to you tonight."

Lee stepped forward, wordlessly, and wrapped his arms around her gently. With his hands holding her hips snugly Lee kissed her once, just slightly more thoroughly than a chaste peck. The softness of his mouth and the sweetness of his breath had Sakura leaning into him as he pulled back. She longed for more. Her mouth tingled with the thought of more.

"If that is what my Sakura-chan wants." Lee spoke carefully and low. He was a hair's breath away from loosing his composure and crying. She knew the signs.

"I love you." She breathed. Both their eyes went wide as Sakura's hands flew up to cover her mouth. Lee was the first to move, his eye filling with tears as the corners crinkled with pleasure.

"I love you too, Sakura-chan." He smiled, pulling her hands down and kissing her again, another chaste, but lingering moment. He gently took the key from her hand and opened the door. "But we are young and I promise that you will come home safe to me. So if your mother insists on the same promise as before I will give it. Okay?" Lee held the door open for his girlfriend. She frowned, confused but walked in.

"Okay… But Lee-kun, how can you promise I'll come home safe? You weren't allowed to come on the mission. Things happen on a mission."

"Oh!" Lee grinned. "Gai-sensei made a promise to Kakashi-sensei that will ensure Kakashi-sensei will let you come to no harm. It was a most ingenious idea. Then Tsunade-sama agreed and made Kakashi a promise that will also ensure Sakura-chan is cared for."

"I'm not sure I want to know." Sakura groaned and she grabbed her bag from the foot of the stairs, she called into the kitchen, "Mom, I'm grabbing my stuff and going to Lee-kun's tonight. Come and say hi." Sakura's mother appeared in the door of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Sakura, be careful on your mission tomorrow. Lee-kun, it's very nice to see you again." Lee smiled warmly.

"It is nice to see you too. Thank you Haruno-san, for letting Sakura-chan spend the night. I promise that she will remain fully clothed and that I will not touch her in any way that is inappropriate. I will treat her as I do when we are in public. I will do nothing that will be questionable to Sakura-chan's honor, Haruno-san: you have my word." Sakura held her breath as her mother nodded, satisfied.

"Thank you Lee-kun. You are sweet to a poor old mother."

"I think Haruno-san is very pretty. I do not think that you should not call yourself old. Why, I should thing you were Sakura-chan's sister if I did not know otherwise." Her mother smiled as Lee spoke, his hands very demurely behind his back, honesty in every line of his posture. Sakura put on her pack, eyeing the door. Her mother waved a spoon at the young man, laughing.

"Watch out there! I'm not going to fall for flattery, Lee-kun, so just behave and take my daughter home with you! Sakura," Her mother leaned forward and kissed her forehead, as she always did before a mission. "Take care, okay? Goodnight."

"Goodnight Mom!" "Goodnight Haruno-san!"

The door shut behind then as Lee and Sakura turned towards his home. Together. Lee took her hand in his and kissed it.

"Would you like me to carry your pack?"

"No, I'm fine, but thanks."

"Okay."

It was another beautiful night, warm for fall, but not too hot. The streetlight glowed and reminded Sakura of another night out here. With Lee. When she'd admitted to him her feelings. It was a lovely night.

"Lee-kun?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan?"

"What did Gai-sensei promise Kakashi-sensei?"

"Oh. Gai-sensei promised to wake Kakashi-sensei before dawn for the next year and make him come on a morning run with him if you were harmed on this mission."

"But Kakashi hates waking up early. And I don't think he's fond of running."

"Yes, that is what Gai-sensei said. Then Tsunade-sama promised Kakashi-sensei that he would babysit her slug Katsuyu's new babies for the next year if you were harmed."

"Baby slugs, eww, that's gotta be worse than cleaning sewers."

"And that Gai-sensei would have first pick of all of Kakashi-sensei's missions so that he would have more time for the slug babies."

"This will be one hell of a mission." Sakura sighed at the thought of what lay ahead.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"I promise that you will not think about the mission anymore when we get home." Sakura's blood heated at the rare innuendo from Lee. She smiled brilliantly. The look in his eyes bespoke of his confidence. Sakura didn't doubt him. She laughed.

"Then take me home, Lee-kun!" Lee scooped her up, pack and all, and somehow managed to settle her comfortably in his arms. He kissed her fervently as her fingers worked into his hair at the back of his neck.

"With pleasure!"

* * *

_AN: Whew! What a piece: B&M is a number of firsts and highlights for me: my first fic that was unfinished when I began posting; my first Naruto; my first "real" love story (guy gets girl, no question); my most reviewed fic; my first fic to receive fanart; and my longest fic to date.  
_

_I loved writing this: It was such a challenge. If you don't write Lee and Sakura yet, you can only imagine how difficult a pair they are to make work realistically. A sympathetic portait of Lee, both manic and sweetly serious, is difficult enough. Add Sakura in there and it becomes twice as hard. Not to mention they're 13-15 years old: a range I don't fit into. Trying to remember how it felt to crush so hard & fast and then portray it acturately was tough. I feared Sakura's feelings changed too quickly; I feared Lee was acting too mature. Still, what helped me keep it together were your reviews that I was believable and on track._

_Thank you all! -Michaela_


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